Virtually preparing for human connection

Nothing can replicate the experience of meeting a person face-to-face and seeing the world from their perspective.

This is just one reason why community immersion is crucial to the Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. The program’s mission is to explore business solutions for issues such as poverty, violence and exclusion by partnering with community organizations located in the regions where such challenges have led to crises. Now, thanks to VR technology developed by the Notre Dame Office of Digital Learning, students are better prepared for the human interactions they will encounter when they enter these regions. Through the program’s flagship international course, Business on the Frontlines (BOTFL), and its domestic counterpart, Frontlines in America (FIA), Notre Dame MBA and other graduate students spend a semester exploring challenges to economic development and the dignity of work in settings that range from the West Bank to West Virginia, and many places in between. The issues are thorny enough on their own, but preparing to address them during the on-site component of the course creates additional challenges. Kelly Rubey, the Edward J. Huether Associate Teaching Professor of International Business at Mendoza who teaches Frontlines courses, acknowledged that “nothing can ever completely prepare us for what is often an emotional and spiritual experience of accompanying communities facing the traumas of violence, poverty or prejudice.” After receiving a 2025 Digital Learning Sprint Award, Rubey sought to help students better understand what is often an unparalleled experience by working with KC Frye, Director of Academic Media & XR in the Office of Digital Learning. Previously, Frye worked with Wendy Angst, the Mike & Melanie Neumann Director of the Powerful Means Initiative and a teaching professor in the Department of Management & Organization at Mendoza, to build a simulation of the St. Bakhita Vocational Training Center in Kalongo, Uganda. St. Bakhita is the first community partner for the Powerful Means Initiative, which challenges Notre Dame students to design sustainable and revenue-generating programs for the vocational school. Using 360 video technology and animation, Frye created a virtual reality based on life in Uganda that users could access by wearing headsets. “That was an ‘aha’ moment for us where we realized we could leverage our core skills as academic media professionals and translate them into these new environments,” said Frye, who began working with XR Developer Michael Takami to create more interactive VR learning experiences using the cross-platform game engine Unity. They collaborated with other professors, including Tim Hubbard, assistant professor and Donnelly Fellow in Participatory Management at Mendoza, to create narrative-driven simulations using case studies. BOTFL and FIA students kick off their semesters with a retreat where they explore how their field visit might unfold by reviewing a case study based on a previous course experience. When Rubey met with Frye, she chose a retreat case based on a 2019 experience in Putumayo, Colombia, to build the narrative for the simulation. “While teams may be going to different continents, the Colombia case is designed to help students understand the people they are likely to meet anywhere, including teachers, waitstaff, mayors and drivers, to learn to balance building rapport with the pressures of data collection,” explained Rubey. In Colombia, the BOTFL team explored how the cultivation of an Amazonian nut called sacha inchi might help advance peacekeeping efforts by allowing rural farmers to exit the illicit coca trade. During the field visit, they met with local farmers, street vendors, cab drivers, entrepreneurs and civic and business leaders. Frye’s team used their backstories and the responses and behaviors that were reported in the case study to train an AI for the simulation. In it, students interact virtually with avatars of the Colombian community members and ask real questions, to which the avatars respond.

“What you get is a learning experience that's dynamic and fluid based on what the students’ actions are within the environment. It's not purely a simulation. There are gameplay elements that we've incorporated.” KC Frye, Office of Digital Learning

"What you get is a learning experience that's dynamic and fluid based on what the students’ actions are within the environment,” Frye said. “It's not purely a simulation. There are gameplay elements that we've incorporated.” After successfully partnering with the Powerful Means Initiative, St. Bakhita became a BOTFL partner as well. Before her field visit to Kalongo, Uganda, BOTFL student Katie Wiggin (MBA ’26) used the VR experience based on Colombia to get a sense of what to expect. “It helped me imagine the environment, the people and the dynamics of the community before stepping foot there,” said Wiggin. “VR lets students go beyond reading about a case. It drops you right into the moment, where you’re practicing how to listen, ask thoughtful questions and connect with people whose lives may look very different from your own.” When Tyler Diehl (MBA ‘26) piloted the technology, he was especially surprised by how responsive and realistic the interview experience was. “I see strong potential for using this technology in the classroom to not only help students refine their interviewing skills, but also to build cultural awareness and empathy before they step into the field,” he said. Frye said this is just the beginning as the technology continues to evolve and can be used to enrich a variety of learning opportunities. He is already working with other Notre Dame departments, including designing simulations for master’s students at the Eck Institute for Global Health who are researching a drug epidemic related to pregnancy in Ethiopia. The Frontlines program can also look forward to more detailed simulations based on different case studies, as Wiggin and other students brought 360 cameras to capture field visits in Uganda, Honduras and Kyrgyzstan. “What excites me most is how this technology makes preparation feel more real and less abstract, helping students step into fieldwork with empathy, humility and curiosity,” said Wiggin. “That’s where the real learning happens — building perspective and relationships that stick far beyond the classroom.”