Dec 17, 2020 | EDSCOOP
Faculty at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo have been awarded funding to develop diversity, equity and inclusion training using virtual reality, the university announced Wednesday.
A $45,000 grant from the Public Interest Technology University Network, a partnership of colleges and universities that supports the development of new civic technology, will support faculty to develop new VR tools that can be incorporated into programs like sexual and gender harassment and LGBTQ+ inclusivity training.
“One of the issues with how current trainings are structured is that there is not an opportunity to put what you’ve learned into true practice and when you’re faced with responding to an incident of bias or harassment, it can be challenging to speak up or do something,” Christine Hackman, an associate professor of kinesiology and public health at Cal Poly who will be working on the development team, said in a press release.