Changing perspectives: enhancing learning efficacy with the after-action review in virtual reality training for police

The After-Action Review (AAR) in Virtual Reality (VR) training for police provides new opportunities to enhance learning. We investigated whether perspectives (bird’s eye & police officer, bird’s eye & suspect, bird’s eye) and line of fire displayed in the AAR impacted the officers’ learning efficacy. A 3 x 2 ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of AAR perspectives. Post hoc pairwise comparisons showed that using a bird’s eye view in combination with the suspect perspective elicits significantly greater learning efficacy compared to using a bird’s eye view alone. Using the line of fire feature did not influence learning efficacy. Our findings show that the use of the suspect perspective during the AAR in VR training can support the learning efficacy of police officers.

Practitioner summary: VR systems possess After-Action Review tools that provide objective performance feedback. This study found that reviewing a VR police training scenario from the bird’s eye view in combination with the suspect perspective enhanced police officers’ learning efficacy. Designing and applying the After-Action Review effectively can improve learning efficacy in VR.