A new approach to training military parachutists through virtual-reality simulators has been developed by West Australian academics working with the Australian Defence Force.

Dr Brennan Mills and a team from Edith Cowan, Curtin and Murdoch Universities have written a new paper on the value of co-design in developing the Paraverse, as the new high-tech training environment is called.

While co-design has long been used to refine technological education aides in health and other sectors, there had been little attention paid to the importance of working with military collaborators to design effective training for soldiers, the researchers found.

Drawing together Special Operations soldiers with virtual reality and education design staff, the Paraverse project developed a new tool to teach special operations soliders advanced tactics, techniques and procedures involved in parachute training, replacing an earlier virtual reality model.