BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:Linklings LLC
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Chicago
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Chicago
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0600
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:CDT
DTSTART:19700308T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0600
TZNAME:CST
DTSTART:19701101T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20251016T135130Z
LOCATION:Riverside East
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20251015T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20251015T183000
UID:HFESAM_ASPIRE 2025_sess138_POST302@linklings.com
SUMMARY:Gender, Immersion, and Change:  Evaluating the Impact of VR Traini
 ng on Self-Efficacy and Gender Stereotype
DESCRIPTION:Yi Wu, Sanaz Motamedi, Mohammad Hossein Kazemi, Yuqing Hu, and
  Scarlett Miller (The Pennsylvania State University)\n\nThe construction i
 ndustry faces workforce challenges including an aging workforce, declining
  interest among younger generations, and gender disparities among other is
 sues, with women comprising less than 11% of workers. While automation and
  teleoperation emerge as strategies to address workforce shortages, psycho
 logical barriers—low self-efficacy (SE) and gender stereotypes (GS)—contin
 ue to limit prospective groups, including women, from choosing constructio
 n as a career path. This study explores the impact of training at various 
 immersion levels on boosting SE and mitigating GS across gender groups. Us
 ing a between-subjects experimental design, participants were randomly ass
 igned to two immersion levels of VR technology with balanced gender distri
 bution and completed two sessions of tower crane operation simulations. SE
  and GS were assessed before and after the intervention. Results demonstra
 te that training with both VR immersion levels significantly increased SE 
 across all participants, with women showing greater improvements than men—
 effectively eliminating pre-existing gender gaps. For GS, while overall ch
 anges were not statistically significant, analyses revealed marginally sig
 nificant interaction effects. Post-hoc comparisons showed that women and t
 hose in the high-immersion VR condition demonstrated significant improveme
 nts post-training. This research provides valuable insights for developing
  inclusive training approaches in increasingly automated construction envi
 ronments, potentially helping address industry-wide labor shortages.\n\n
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR