XR

Virtual reality that puts people inside the moment

Virtual reality is the most immersive part of PTR's XR work. Rather than describing a difficult conversation or a high-pressure procedure, VR puts someone inside it: a first-person, three-dimensional scenario that responds to what they do. Across client projects this work has settled into three recurring patterns: role-play and rehearsal, perspective experiences, and procedural simulation.

How PTR builds it

Role-play and rehearsal is first-person practice of conversations that are difficult to stage any other way. Perspective experiences step a learner into another person's position to build understanding that sticks. Procedural simulation lets someone practise a sequence, a decision or a high-pressure environment safely and repeatedly.

All three follow the same underlying pattern: a safe environment, real pressure, the learner's own choice, then a structured reflect-and-repeat cycle. Psychological safety is designed in, not bolted on.

Role-play and rehearsal.
Perspective experiences.
Procedural simulation.

Role-play, perspective and procedure, in that order. Rendered illustrations of each pattern, not footage from a client build.

Where it is used

PTR's VR work spans healthcare and medical training, education and workforce development, aged care and disability services, creative arts and galleries, government and defence leadership, and corporate and executive leadership. Three published projects show the pattern in practice, plus a fourth backed by two peer-reviewed studies.

1,149

Nurse and social worker leaders across Mayo Clinic who took part in a VR empathy and bias-recognition training, evaluated in two peer-reviewed papers. Read the research

96%

Of Mater Education staff said they wanted more VR-based learning after piloting a VR feedback-conversation simulation, per Mater's own program evaluation.

82%

Of QA testers rated the facilitated post-VR group discussion useful or very useful, in Google's peer-reviewed CHI 2024 VR DEI case study (9 of 11 respondents).

A branded Mater VR training scene: a male nurse avatar seated at a table beside a floating 'Touch to start speaking: Start Speaking' prompt, in a room with a hospital-style exterior visible through the window.
Mater Education

Mater Education, part of the Mater hospital group in Queensland, worked with PTR to bring its Speaking with Good Judgement feedback-culture program into a branched VR simulation of real hospital environments. Full case study

Two 3D animated avatars in business attire in conversation inside a virtual office environment.
Google, with Equal Reality

Google's DEI team built four VR scenarios with Equal Reality, each letting a trainee experience the same workplace situation from two different points of view, followed by a live, facilitated group debrief rather than a scripted in-app discussion. Full case study

Three animated avatars, two men and a woman, seated on lounge chairs around a coffee table in conversation inside a VR meeting room.
Cornell University

Everyday Inclusion, co-designed with Cornell University and diversity and inclusion expert Angela Winfield, has led PTR's inclusion library since 2018 and has since been reused for Etihad Airways and Metro Trains workshops. Full case study

The PTR VR Library

Much of this work now lives in the PTR VR Library, a catalogue of ready-to-run VR titles built around the same role-play, perspective and procedural patterns.

Where VR needs care

VR's own published evidence carries real caveats worth planning around. Google's CHI 2024 authors list five open concerns for VR DEI training generally: headset discomfort and fit with glasses, the cost of scaling both headsets and facilitators, limited visual fidelity of avatars and environments, participants wanting more agency in how scenarios unfold, and the risk that some of the positive response reflects novelty rather than a lasting effect of the format itself. Mayo Clinic's published trial adds its own limitations: the measures were self-reported surveys and a hypothetical written scenario rather than observed workplace behaviour, the sample was drawn from a single health system and was mostly white and female, and the 6 to 8 month follow-up no longer had a comparison group. None of this means VR does not work: Mayo Clinic's own controlled trial still found statistically significant, and durable, gains in empathy and willingness to act. It means a VR session works best with a trained facilitator, a debrief slot built into the schedule, and realistic expectations about what one session can measure.

New to virtual reality itself, rather than how PTR uses it? Start with What is Virtual Reality?. See the patterns above running as real builds at LABS DEMOS.

Key takeaway

Virtual reality replaces what a person sees and hears with a computer-generated three-dimensional environment, tracked in real time so it responds to their movement. PTR uses it for first-person rehearsal of difficult conversations, perspective-taking, and safe, repeated practice of high-pressure procedures, always paired with a facilitated debrief rather than left to run on its own.

Sources and further reading