Skills Enhancement Exercises
Use simulations to upskill or enhance your self-efficacy in Pre-ETS
We wanted to go beyond online coursework to allow you to use your knowledge and practice your skills in everyday scenarios with youth and employers. We know that mastery in these areas improves outcomes for youth with disabilities.
Courses 2 and 3 prepare you for topic-specific skill enhancement exercises. Course 2 will focus on (1) career counseling with a young person with a disability and parent, and (2) facilitating group work with adolescents with disabilities. Course 3 will focus on effective communication skills to engage employers in promoting work experiences for youth with disabilities.
How will we practice our skills?
Tools for eLearning have expanded over the years and we have chosen two methods for skill building. Each delivers an immersive experience, but they use different platforms, to include
- Engaging with live avatars in an online virtual simulation environment
- Role-playing with peers in a social virtual reality environment
Each experience seeks to go beyond traditional role-playing or programmed scripts - assisting you in mastering counseling moves and fostering opportunities for youth and others to support Pre-ETS.
Training Delivery Methods
Virtual Reality with Ai Avatar
We are exploring the use of AI-driven avatars to mimic real-life interaction in 2024-25. This provides an intuitive platform for counselors-in-training to engage in real-life scenarios and practice situations in the safety of AI-driven role play.
Training using an AI Avatar in virtual reality (VR) works by combining the immersive environment of VR with intelligent, responsive avatars powered by artificial intelligence.
Learn more →Virtual Simulation
Training in a virtual simulation lab allows you to practice tasks in a digital environment that mimics real life. You can interact with virtual objects, receive feedback, and repeat tasks to improve your skills, all without any risks or costs associated with real-world mistakes. It's a safe, effective, and engaging way to learn complex skills and gain practical experience.
Learn more →Social Virtual Reality
Training with virtual reality and a headset means stepping into a computer-created world where you can learn by doing. You wear the VR headset to enter this world, interact with objects using controllers, and practice real-world tasks in a safe, immersive, and repeatable way. Whether it's for medical training, operating machinery, or practicing safety procedures, VR allows you to train without real-world risks and gain valuable hands-on experience.
Learn more →Preparation for Skill Engagement Exercises
Designing Skill Enhancement Exercises in Counselor EducationImmersive technologies open new opportunities for faculty to create structured, competency-based learning experiences for counseling students. Through Skill Enhancement exercises, programs can design activities that target specific counseling skills while maintaining alignment with CACREP 2024 standards and ACA ethical principles.
By adapting the Skill Enhancement framework, faculty ensure that each exercise is intentional, measurable, and tied to program outcomes. This approach supports consistent student growth, equitable access to practice opportunities, and stronger documentation of competency development for accreditation.
Evaluation of Skill Engagement Exercises
Our assessment instruments are designed to help evaluate how well Skill Enhancement exercises meet their goals, and they can also be adapted for use in your own training programs. Each tool provides a structured way to capture participant feedback on engagement, skill practice, and learning transfer.
Questions such as:
- How was the experience?
- Did the modality support your learning effectively?
- Were you able to immerse yourself in the scenario?
These items provide faculty a model for designing assessments tailored to their unique training contexts.