Honest mirror

Stan: "We are developing two tools to teach students how to present more easily. The first is an environment you see through VR glasses. You hold your presentation in front of a virtual audience. That audience responds to your presentation like real audiences. They look intently, or, conversely, look away somewhat disinterested. Because the spectator responds as real a audience, you learn to deal with audiences without feeling that you make a bad impression in front of the group. After the presentation, the app provides feedback to improve your presentation. For example, the technology detects how fast you talk and how much eye contact you make."

The VR learning environment was developed by CoVince. Richard van Tilborg, co-founder of CoVince: "We develop virtual environments with the benefits of offline environments. We do this because we are convinced that people come out better there than in more common virtual environments. A virtual environment that matches human experience enhances people's learning and collaboration, and itnd also makes it that much more fun." Stan: "That vision aligns very well with the ambitions of this project, making CoVince a logical collaborative partner, one we are happy to collaborate with."

"The VR glasses cannot detect your body language. Therefore, we have created a separate tool for that. The app Honest Mirror, which runs on a phone, laptop, or tablet, detects your arms, legs and head, and can analyse your body language during your presentation. Position your device in such a manner that your camera can see you, and hold your presentation. After the presentation, you receive a report, includingtips on voice use, speaking speed, and body language."

"I am an educationist," says Stan,"so, I don't have a background in technology. I therefore knocked on the door of the HU's ICT department with the question: do we have ICT students in house who want to work on innovative educational applications? Typically, among them were students who chose this project because they themselves suffer from presentation anxiety. They choose this project because they think it is important to have these applications. We immediately gave the students a lot of responsibility. It's fantastic when your target group is this engaged with your innovation." Student Olivier van der Molen: "From day one, it felt like we were colleagues, and we officially are now because after my project period, Stan offered me a job as a student-coordinator working on the project. So I now work here whilst studying." 

The VR environment has been extensively tested. This shows that it teaches students to present just as well as the usual, classroom approach. Stan: "With the caveat that the tool cannot judge the content of the presentation, and whether, what you say, is true. That remains the job of lecturers." The application in which body language is analysed, Honest Mirror, is now being tested at various degree programmes inside and outside of the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. In time, Honest Mirror will be made available for free. "This way, anyone who speaks Dutch or English can use the app. But we also have the ambition to integrate the two tools and develop them further for other language and cultural areas."

• CoVince
• Digital Ethics research group
• Open ICT degree programme (NL)
• ICT degree programme (NL)
• History lecturer degree programme (NL)
• Unesco (NL)
• Abilene Christian University, Texas