HRD Virtual Lab
Purdue HRD (Human Resource Development) Virtual Lab advances HRD theory and practice by designing and evaluating immersive learning with virtual, augmented, and extended reality (XR) alongside AI. Grounded in experiential and situated learning, cognitive load, and team science, we study how XR and AI coaching agents—integrating head-mounted displays, hand/eye tracking, haptics, and digital twins—affect skills acquisition, retention, transfer, and behavior change. Using mixed-methods, field and quasi-experimental designs, and learning analytics, we assess outcomes from the individual to the team level (e.g., task performance, coordination, collaboration, safety behaviors, and adoption/readiness metrics). As automation and the digital economy reshape work, we translate findings into applications across training and talent development, onboarding, leadership and teamwork, safety, and change management—guided by research ethics review, privacy-by-design principles, and robust data security and retention controls.
The Purdue HRD Virtual Lab is equipped with an evolving stack of immersive and sensing capabilities to support research, teaching, and experiential learning. Our environment spans virtual, augmented, and extended reality (XR) with full-color passthrough, optical see-through AR, and PC-class tethered VR for high-fidelity experiments. We support hand, eye, and body tracking, haptics, and spatial audio, alongside AI coaching agents and learning-analytics pipelines for real-time feedback and post-session analysis. For content creation and field studies, the Lab enables 360°/spatial video capture, digital-twin scenarios, and rapid prototyping workflows. To study human performance, we integrate physiological and behavioral sensing (e.g., gaze, EDA/GSR, heart-rate/PPG, motion/IMU) with precise time-sync to XR events.
The Lab also serves as the venue for experiential education for HRD students through AI-enhanced virtual, augmented, and extended reality (XR) simulations that target leadership, collaborative teamwork, workplace communication, and social skills. Learners practice scenarios such as coaching and feedback, conflict resolution, cross-cultural collaboration, safety briefings, and change conversations—with AI coaching agents providing adaptive prompts, real-time feedback, and guided reflection. Post-scenario guided reflection and after-action reviews prompt learners to analyze decisions, weigh alternatives, and connect evidence to outcomes; prompted self-assessments, peer-feedback rounds, and facilitated debriefs (optionally informed by decision-tree algorithms that evaluate learner choices and branching outcomes) cultivate reflective thinking and critical-thinking skills, strengthening transfer to internships and workplace practice.
