Case Study: VU University Amsterdam advances realistic VR law training with SURF’s PleitVRij

VR teaching method PleitVRij taken to next level

VU University Amsterdam, along with the Universiteit Utrecht and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, faced the challenge of enabling law students to practice pleading in a realistic setting without overburdening lecturers with technical support requirements. Technical failures and a lack of dedicated support were preventing the wider use and scaling of their virtual reality teaching tool, PleitVRij, which had been developed with SURF.

SURF helped the universities improve the PleitVRij technology by facilitating the purchase of new, more reliable VR glasses and, crucially, by establishing dedicated technical support teams at each university to relieve the teaching staff. This solution allowed for the expansion of the learning environment to include new roles for students and new feedback mechanisms. The project successfully professionalized support, enabling scaling and collaboration between students from different universities, and is now being used by other institutions like the University of Leuven.

VU University Amsterdam

Linde Voorend

Content and Education Support Project Leader