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As part of the “Financial Institutions: Risk, Compliance, and Data Analytics”apprenticeship track in the Grande École Program, Marjorie FOX, professor of Law, has implemented a cutting-edge virtual reality workshop for her course on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This workshop is part of an innovative educational approach aimed at making the learning of legal concepts more interactive and engaging for students. 

A need for practical and disruptive experience

Aurore BURIETZ, Academic Director of this apprenticeship track, was pondering how to make the teaching as practical as possible to help students integrate knowledge more easily. At the same time, Marjorie FOX noticed the difficulty that students had in staying focused for hours on these challenging subjects. she explains.

“The pace is very intensive for the apprentices during their coursework periods: they are with us all day, from 8 am to 6 pm. It’s sometimes hard to keep their attention over such a long period. The virtual reality workshop was designed to capture their attention, stimulate them, and facilitate in-class learning, thus avoiding overloading them with homework after classes.”

Marjorie FOX

To address this challenge, Marjorie decided to introduce this new disruptive teaching method. Inspired by an escape game created by her colleague Clare SHIN, a professor of management and data protection, which was a great success, Marjorie decided to try a similar approach with virtual reality. “I trusted my students to play along and realize the added value of this exercise. They showed seriousness and commitment,” she notes.

An engaging and adaptive activity

The Virtual Reality workshop covers several pillars of the School’s teaching strategy, including active learning, adaptive learning, and hybrid learning. The workshop’s scenario changes based on student reactions, making each session unique and personalized. It includes interactive elements such as voice recognition and summary sheets of the legal rules applied to the encountered situations.

Developed in collaboration with the CETI (Center for Educational and Technological Innovation), this project took seven months to materialize. “I would like to thank the people who helped me carry out the project, especially Antoine GOLLIOT, Audiovisual Operations Officer, who was incredibly patient in supporting and guiding me on the technical aspects I was not familiar with and for all the adjustments needed,” adds Marjorie.

Once the virtual reality headset on, the students were immersed in the entrance hall of the Lille campus, where they were then directed to an office to experience a highly realistic immersive situation with a client. They had to use their GDPR knowledge to make decisions and inform the client. The integration of speech-to-text technology allowed them to actively participate in the scene by speaking directly to the virtual client.

The workshop, based on real-life scenarios, had a significant impact on students’ retention of concepts. The students were very satisfied with the experience, and their feedback will help improve the workshop for the next year. Marjorie FOX also plans to integrate this module into a larger group project and eventually extend it to other programs on the Lille campus.

“I find that our apprentice students are very deserving. I love working with them, and I like giving back what they give me in terms of classroom engagement. That’s also what motivated me to develop this project for them,” concludes Marjorie FOX.