Virtual reality courtroom for law students introduced by UJ
Specialists from the University of Johannesburg gave their stamp of approval after reviewing the VR game
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has released the Virtual Reality Courtroom Game to help law pupils improve their skills in legal evaluation and court advocacy.
The programme is a first for South Africa and a trailblazing endeavour across the African continent, according to a release.
According to UJ, the integration of virtual reality (VR) into legal studies is demonstrating the enormous potential of technology to transform conventional educational paradigms and provide students with an immersive, interactive learning experience that connects theoretical knowledge with real-world application.
The VR Courtroom Game was developed by the university’s Faculty of Law in collaboration with the Innovation Lab of the Johannesburg Business School. It immerses students in intricate legal scenarios that mirror actual circumstances, therefore addressing the difficulty of making legal knowledge powerful and relevant.
The project’s development team recognised major contemporary challenges in legal education from the outset, according to associate professor and the Head of Private Law at UJ’s Faculty of Law and main project lead, Professor Michele van Eck. These challenges specifically included demonstrating the relevance of legal content and its constitutional impact on daily life, particularly in a country still shaped by the legacy of apartheid.
According to Van Eck, the project team set out to provide a novel and comprehensive approach to legal education in light of this.
With its complex legal scenarios spanning many disciplines, the VR Courtroom Game is an inventive initiative that prepares students for real-world legal practice by letting them engage with real-world circumstances and understand how legal concepts interact. Much brainstorming was needed to construct real-world scenarios that include a range of legal issues and include students with different levels of legal knowledge and expertise.
By using contemporary technology, Professor Abejide Ade-Ibijola, a professor of and applications at UJ and the technical lead creator of the VR Courtroom Game, continues, the game seeks to make law fun and engaging.
By strengthening students’ analytical abilities and better preparing them for real-world practice, these technologies have the ability to close the gap between legal theory and practice, supporting a transformational approach in legal education.
Consequently, according to Ade-Ibijola, this not only makes the experience more accessible and engaging for the students, but it also helps them grasp legal concepts and how they relate to one another on a deeper level.
Experts from the UJ Faculty of Law comprised the other members of the development team. They created the game’s plot, content, and scenarios, including Professor Puseletso Letete, Felicia Zuba, Natasha Naidoo, Louis Koen, Elton Hart, Dr. Whitney Rosenberg, Dr. Werner Nel, and Dr. Yvette Joubert.
To guarantee the game’s accuracy and efficacy, these professionals also put it through testing and validation.