Supporting Student Veterans: Utilizing Game-Based Role-Plays with Virtual Humans to Build Military Cultural Competency and Helping Behaviors in Faculty and Staff

Veterans and military service members enter the classroom with valuable life and leadership experience; however, transitioning to student life represents unique challenges. Like the larger veteran population, student veterans may bring to campus the negative aftereffects of their combat experiences in the form of Post-Traumatic Stress, substance abuse, depression, and thoughts of suicide. To better support and retain the nation’s growing number of student veterans, higher-education institutions are beginning to train faculty and staff to more effectively understand and meet the needs of student veteran populations. This study examines the impact of a new and innovative game-based virtual training simulation where users role-play with emotionally responsive virtual student veterans to understand the unique value veterans bring to campus, the obstacles they face in their pursuit of a college degree, effective tactics for managing challenging conversations and the best practices for connecting student veterans exhibiting signs of psychological distress with appropriate support services. Longitudinal data showed significant (