Digital Assessment Project

Mike Morrison
EDIT 677
Final Project
Digital Assessment Project

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION
The Research question that I aim to answer through this Action Research Project is: Does

the use of Virtual Reality Training tools in Baseball have a greater effect on pitchers training and

help their performance on Game day? This particular question interests me because I coach

pitchers at Coastal Carolina and I am always searching for the most efficient and effective way to

Coach, Teach, and Train my pitchers. I am always searching for the best way to help them

perform on the field and give them every tool possible to succeed. Virtual Reality training in

baseball has started to become popular in the last 5 years with the introduction of STRIVR.

STRIVR is used by some of the world’s most respected organizations, from Fortune 100

companies to professional sports teams. The STRIVR platform utilizes immersive technology in

an effort to help individuals learn faster and more effectively, improving reaction time, pattern

recognition, and decision making in the real world. The data and insights drawn are unlike

anything else: the most accurate assessment of performance and preparedness for real life

situations. This instructional technology innovation can help change the way baseball programs

train not only their pitchers but all players in general. Programs can use this innovation in order

to gain an edge today with these proven advantages:

 Increases safety without sacrificing on-the-job training

 Boosts productivity

 Drastically improves retention of topics

 Brings an enhanced level of realism to training scenarios

 Improves training satisfaction score

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
For baseball players, especially pitchers, peak performance in the game is all about

repetitions. The best athletes dedicate years and years of work to be ready to perform at the

highest level when it matters most. But real-life reps are limited due to all sorts of factors

including rules, physical toll on bodies, and weather. But with this Instructional Technology

Innovation there is now a solution to some of these problems. With Virtual Reality and the

STRIVR technology, my pitchers can practice anytime, anywhere, just as if they were out on the

field. Using an immersive Virtual Reality environment, the pitchers can accelerate their training

regimen and never miss a beat. STRIVR’s technology gives athletes unlimited reps in the most

realistic environment possible, so they can be ready when they step foot on the field. For a

number of years, teachers have been customizing their own virtual worlds to enhance the way

thy present content to their learners. A virtual world is typically a multi-user, computer-based

environment in which users interact with one another through pre-programmed avatars or digital

representations of the user. This virtual world allows students to go to otherwise impossible

locations. Typically, science, medicine and math are the virtual environments used but I however

believe it can be applied to sports. When used in the mathematical and scientific worlds VR

allow users to represent abstract topics in ways that would otherwise be difficult or impossible in

real life. The use of virtual reality for simulation of medical procedures is well documented, as it

allows for errors to be made without the catastrophic consequences in real procedures. I think

this is relatable to baseball because VR will allow my pitchers to make mistakes in the classroom

which will in turn eliminate the mistakes on the field (Phillips, 2017). One particularly

innovative initiative was conducted in a virtual world called Second Life. The program allows

teachers to design, create and teach in a virtual world with 100 university students. A series of

collaborative activities were used to introduce aspects of Chinese language and culture to

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students in Australia before they spent time on exchange in China (Henderson, 2009). When the

effects of this program were researched, data illustrated significant improvements in a number of

key areas including (Huang, 2015):

1. Reducing apprehension and embarrassment, which otherwise impede experimentation in

activities like role-playing.

2. Allowing students to revisit and repeat lessons multiple times to reinforce key

understanding.

3. Encouraging better social interaction between students as they were reacting and sharing

a virtual world, rather than through email.

4. Putting students in control of their avatar, not the teacher, which meant they could

explore and interact independently. Unlike PowerPoint, where everybody sees the same

information in the same way at the same time, a virtual world allows students to create their own

understanding.

5. A lack of non-verbal clues, including body language, gestures and facial expressions, has

been cited in studies as negatively impacting communication. Some students have reportedly

said that they feel restricted because they can’t use their hands for gestures. However, in

increasingly sophisticated virtual worlds, avatars move and respond in more realistic ways.

Improved graphics cards in computers also allow students to infer more meaning through these

conversations.

ANALYSIS
After going through a series of surveys with my players and various research done

through the technology I have come to a series of conclusions. The Virtual Reality training

demonstrates faster and more accurate learning compared to traditional study methods. The

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research that I have found through STRIVR was thorough. They engaged 711 learners to

participate in the evaluation. Most learners had little to no experience pitching a baseball.

Learners in the research effort were randomly assigned to one of two learning conditions: (1)

STRIVR VR training or a (2) Traditional Study training method. In both types of training the

goal was the same: successfully learn a baseball concept whereby the actions of a defender

indicate what the learner should do. After training, learners in both conditions involved in a VR

assessment to measure the effectiveness of their particular training. The most notable difference

was the substantial advantage in reaction time that STRIVR trained learners exhibited as

compared to their Traditional Study trained group (Casale, 2017) The figure below displays the

mean reaction time for each Training Condition. Across both questions, the STRIVR group

demonstrated an advantage for reaction times, with STRIVR trained learners responding with a

mean reaction time of 3.01 seconds versus a mean reaction time of 3.77 seconds for those in the

Traditional Study condition (Burns, 2017).

The other analysis and research that I gathered was an in-home survey that I had my pitchers

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complete for me. The survey that was given to the pitchers consisted of a series of questions that

related to the way that they preferred to learn and be coached. The whole survey was based off of

finding the results of the best way to Coach the players so they can perform better on the field.

Of the 13 pitchers that were surveyed 10 of the 13 said they wanted to learn kinesthetically. They

wanted more walk through and feeling lessons then actual auditory teaching. The second thing

that I analyzed from the data is the fact that all 13 of the Quarterbacks feel as though the Virtual

Reality training is a great supplement to the other video learning and an aspect that they need to

utilize more often. I also tested them on the fact that they are learning the hitters better. I made a

line up of 9 players they would run a simulation of for just three pitches each. The results of that

were very interesting 9-13 got more than 6 players spot on when I questioned them about that.

That alone is getting us that much more prepared then we have been in the past.

Improved

enjoyed it hated it

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6 or more hitters

Sucessful Failed

Above is an example of football using this program as well for QBs.

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FINDINGS
After the series of research and work I have come to a series of conclusions. The use of

Virtual Reality is a supplement that Coaches around the country can use and utilize. Virtual

Reality can be a tool that helps players prepare for the game and will help eliminate mistakes

made on the field and will in turn help their performance on the field. This is no doubt an

expense that I would recommend all serious baseball programs look at paying in order to try and

gain a competitive advantage over other schools that they are competing against. The one thing I

will add is with COVID19 I had to change my plan of action and with our season getting

canceled, I didn’t get all of the data I would love to have. I did all I could and I still think this is

something that is needed on all school’s campuses.

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REFERENCES
Burns, M. J. (2017, April 27). Data From STRIVR Labs Baseball Training Study Suggests VR

Leads To Faster Reaction Times. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from

https://www.sporttechie.com/data-strivr-labs-baseball-training-study-suggests-vr-leads-

faster-reaction-times/

Casale, M. (2017). STRIVR Training Demonstrates Faster and More Accurate Learning

Compared to Traditional Study Methods. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from

http://strivr.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/STRIVR-tech-Report_final_long.pdf

Henderson, M. (2009). Language acquisition in Second Life: Improving self-efficacy beliefs.

Retrieved April 27, 2018, from

http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/auckland09/procs/henderson.pdfhttp://www.ascilite.o

rg/conferences/auckland09/procs/henderson.pdf

Huang, H. (2015, June 24). LNM. Retrieved April 26, 2018, from

http://newmediaresearch.educ.monash.edu.au/lnm/second-language-acquisition-in-

virtual-worlds/

Phillips, M. (2017, January 10). How virtual reality technology is changing the way students

learn. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from https://theconversation.com/how-virtual-reality-

technology-is-changing-the-way-students-learn-63271

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