ILO Bangkok, Better Work Indonesia, the ITCILO and BodySwaps collaborated to design an immersive and interactive virtual reality simulation to teach factory workers about the risks of sexual harassment at work.

Virtual Reality (VR) can be a powerful training tool to evoke empathy and practice the best ways to react during tricky situations. Research suggests that VR can be especially helpful for training people to handle difficult circumstances as they can “practice handling the situation in a safe environment.”

With VR, people have the opportunity to actively learn by putting their skills to the test while at the same time developing a deeper emotional connection to the content.

In this VR module, participants meet Dewi and Linh, two garment factory machine operators and their struggles with abusive co-workers. Using their own words, they practise direct intervention in a sexual harassment episode.

Throughout the module, participants are guided by virtual coaches. These coaches take participants on a journey through a series of practical exercises.

Before the training starts, participants join the virtual coaches in an informal, relaxed space where the mentors provide one-on-one sessions for learners. At this juncture, participants select a virtual avatar and go on to learn how to embody them by speaking aloud and interacting in the virtual environment.

Through an informal conversation with the virtual coaches, participants are asked to decide what constitutes unacceptable conduct through a gamified activity. While participants provide their opinions, they are also able to reflect on their own level of understanding and their assessment of complex and challenging situations. 

Learners are then shown a conversation between Dewi and Linh, two sewing machine operators talking about their recent interactions with some of their male colleagues. During the exercise, participants need to identify whether an action is likely to be sexual harassment using the legal definition provided earlier by the coaches. 

After a debrief on the previous activity by the coaches, participants are transported to a scene where a male coworker of Linh’s behaves inappropriately. The exercise then allows the participants to play out the 5 different approaches to being an active bystander. This helps them plan to step up when and where they can.

During the final exercise, participants demonstrate the direct approach by speaking directly to the perpetrator about their behaviour. As best as possible, participants use their own voices and bodies to communicate the key messages they want to deliver. Once performed, participants swap their bodies with the perpetrator to see and learn from visualising their own delivery. Lastly, they are presented with the opportunity to play out an ideal interaction as well as view an AI-generated assessment of their performance.

Do you also want to teach others how they can identify and fight sexual harassment at work? This ready-made module can be replicated and used by other governments, institutions, and organizations. Some elements, such as language and objects/machinery, are customizable.

The ITCILO is open to collaboration on new VR modules on similar topics. For more information, contact us at learninginnovation@itcilo.org.