Immersive Learning Environments Show Promise for Training Physical Skills
Understanding What Makes an Effective ILE for Physical Skills
Training psychomotor skills typically requires an expert who observes a learner closely and provides timely, personalised feedback. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person teaching was limited, learners struggled to practise effectively on their own. Despite major advances in digital learning, we still lack good solutions for training hands-on skills independently and giving learners clear, timely feedback.
Khaleel’s dissertation addresses this challenge by identifying the key components and design strategies of ILEs that support psychomotor training. He introduces the MILSDeM framework, a structured approach to designing and developing ILE systems. His research also identifies four core design dimensions crucial for psychomotor skills training: Motor skills classification, technological integration, feedback components, and design characteristics of virtual environments.
These insights provide a foundation for systematically creating training environments that can analyse movements, detect errors, and deliver personalised feedback.
From Framework to Practice: The IMPECT Toolkit
To evaluate how the proposed framework can be applied in practice, Khaleel developed IMPECT (Immersive Multimodal Psychomotor Environments for Competence Training). This training toolkit uses sensors and immersive technologies to support a broad range of psychomotor training needs. Using MILSDeM and the identified design dimensions, several immersive prototypes were created to train skills such as dance movements, exercise routines, and human-robot interactions.
One important finding of the research is that effective feedback depends on the type of skill being trained. Some movements benefit from visual cues, others from audio or haptic feedback; some require real-time corrections, while others are best supported with feedback after the movement. There is no universal solution - the feedback must match the skill.
Future Potential
The MILSDeM framework, design dimensions, and IMPECT toolkit together provide practical guidance for developing future ILE systems. These tools can be extended to new disciplines, new training contexts, and new forms of feedback, opening possibilities beyond education - such as rehabilitation, sports coaching, or professional skills training. Khaleel’s work lays the groundwork for continued innovation in immersive, technology-supported psychomotor learning.
PhD defense of Khaleel Asyraaf Mat Sanusi
Khaleel Asyraaf Mat Sanusi (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1992) has been a researcher and developer at Cologne Game Lab since 2021. He completed his Bachelor’s in Games Technology at Limkokwing University in 2013 and Master's in Media Informatics at Saarland University in 2020. On Friday, December 5, 2025, at 1:30 PM, he will defend his dissertation titled 'Augmenting a learning model within immersive learning environments for psychomotor skills' at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Open University in Heerlen.
Promotor is Prof. Dr. Roland Klemke (Open Universiteit). Copromotors are Dr. Deniz Iren (Open Universiteit) and Dr. Nardie Fanchamps (Open Universiteit). The defense can be attended live at the Open Universiteit in Heerlen and followed online via ou.nl/live.
