Abstract:

Communication skills are essential in today’s society particularly for our student-athletes. Improving student-athletes’ communication skills and their self-efficacy in terms of initiating conversations is fundamental to enhancing their collegiate experience. For this study, 50 student-athletes from a variety of sports participate in three virtual interactions with avatars who represented authority figures on topics such as playing time, stress, academics, life after sports, and financial issues using Mursion, an interactive immersive simulation. A qualitative and quantitative analysis was done on how the experience impacted their interpersonal communication skills after each session and on the experience as a whole. The article provides a summary of how East Carolina University (ECU) has utilized Mursion®, an immersive reality simulator, with student-athletes to improve their perception of their own interpersonal communication skills. A comparison of how their view of their own interpersonal communication skills had changed through their Mursion® is analysed.

Keywords:

Sports, Athletes, Interpersonal Communication, Virtual Reality, Immersive Reality, Communication Skills, Student Development, Student-Athletes