Award Win for Innovative VR Breaking News Experience
A virtual reality project that gives journalism students experience of reporting a simulated breaking news story has won the 'Innovation Award' category at the Education North Awards 2026
Bringing Realistic Journalism Scenarios to Life
Digital Education Enhancement (DEE) team colleagues Dan McKinnie and Dr Danielle Millea worked with Journalism Academic and working journalist Carl Hartley to design and create the activity, which provides a safe environment for students to experience a time-limited activity and test their decision-making skills under pressure.
Interactive Decision‑Making and Task-Based Learning
Overlaying hotspots and branching scenarios allowed interaction from the students, to encourage them to make quick decisions in extreme situations. Students are then prompted to select choices and complete tasks, including writing a social media post, followed by a longer online news article.
“Before I was slightly nervous. During I was very engaged. After I felt it was fun and would do again”
Feedback from first year Journalism student
Reducing Cognitive Load
As students were required to complete tasks, the VR component was designed in two parts, allowing the students time to come out of the VR experience to complete a task before returning, helping to reduce cognitive load and allowing the students time to gradually get used to the technology and work towards the learning outcomes.
User Testing and Iterative Development
Prior to hosting the VR experience in class, user testing sessions took place on campus, with students using VR headsets in HELIX to test the experience and provide feedback.
The Education North Award win recognises its innovative use of technology, strong pedagogical design, and commitment to addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing journalism education and the wider news industry.
I am thrilled the Digital Education team has been recognised for this fantastic VR project, which brings the reality of live journalism to life for our students. It's a testament to the strong partnerships with the academic team and to the team's innovation and creativity in finding new ways to ensure students are always at the heart of education at Leeds. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Dr Margaret Korosec - Director of Digital Education and Learning Innovation
Addressing Journalist Wellbeing
The latest version of the experience, NewsdayVR 2.0, focuses specifically on trauma reporting and journalist wellbeing. Feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive, with many reporting a clearer understanding of the realities of journalism, increased confidence in handling trauma‑related work, and greater awareness of their own mental health.
Journalists routinely cover some of the most difficult and distressing stories imaginable, yet wellbeing support across the industry remains inconsistent. As journalism educators, we have a responsibility to prepare students for these realities - not just technically, but emotionally. NewsdayVR 2.0 allows students to experience trauma reporting in a realistic yet safe environment, helping them build resilience before they enter the newsroom.
Carl Hartley - Lecturer in Journalism Practice
This innovative VR project showcases how realistic and supported environments can prepare students for employment in the world of journalism. The focus on wellbeing is so very important for journalists, alongside building empathy awareness for witnesses and officials. Learning in this active way allows for conversations to open up and reflections to be made. The reactions from students and staff across the teaching community has been amazing and we are very happy to have won this award!
Dr Danielle Millea - Learning Technologist
Celebrating Excellence in the North of England
The Education North Awards showcase world-class achievements and improvement across the University, HE, FE and Sixth Form sectors in the North of England.
The 12th annual awards ceremony took place in Manchester on 7th May 2026. The University of Leeds also won the award for 'University of the Year'
Access the Desktop Version of the Experience
A desktop version of each of the NewsDayVR 2.0 Experience scenes can be found using the links below. These will open up CenarioVR, which hosts the experience in three parts.
CONTENT WARNING - these scenes features witness accounts of fictious traumatic scenes. While there is nothing visually traumatic, spoken content is of a traumatic nature.
Please note, due to the large 360-degree video files hosted via these browser links, some lagging may be experienced. This is not apparent when using VR (as it is downloaded to the device) or in the 2D accessible recap version.
NewsdayVR Experience - Desktop VR version - Scene 1 Bus Stop
NewsdayVR Experience - Desktop VR version - Scene 2 Park
NewsdayVR Experience - Desktop VR version - Scene 3 Police Press Conference