USA Football, Pop Warner Little Scholars and nonprofit TeachAids have launched a virtual reality version of CrashCourse, a concussion education program. The CrashCourse software was developed in collaboration between Stanford University and TeachAids.
CrashCourse VR is now available for free on the Oculus store for anyone with an Oculus Rift or Oculus Go headset. The program includes a virtual concussion symptoms simulator, a 3D representation of the brain, interactive videos starring college athletes, and a VR demo that mimics the experience of playing high school football.
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This new collaboration builds off existing partnerships that TeachAids already had with Pop Warner and USA Football. In 2018, Pop Warner provided an HD-video version of CrashCourse to 325,000 youth athletes, spanning the organization's football and cheer and dance programs. Last July, USA Football became the first organization to establish a certificate for athletes who successfully completed the CrashCourse online course curriculum.
“By integrating the most up-to-date medical knowledge with state-of-the-art technology, TeachAids has developed a uniquely engaging and effective way to ingrain healthy behaviors in our youth,” said Jon Butler, executive director of Pop Warner Little Scholars, in a press release. “We are proud to be partnering with TeachAids to provide materials that are fundamentally different from other educational models that have been created before.”
During an initial trial, over the past year, every public high school in Arkansas has received access to CrashCourse VR courtesy of Oculus Rift headsets donated by Facebook. The CrashCourse curriculum is also being used by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, the California Youth Football Alliance and the U.S. national governing body for synchronized swimming.
