CareerQuestXR: mapping your future in Extended Reality (XR) through virtual aptitude testing

Abstract

South African universities face persistently high first-year dropout rates (exceeding 40%) driven by inadequate career guidance, academic misalignment, and inefficient allocation of public funding. Current guidance tools rely predominantly on self-report inventories and narrow cognitive constructs that fail to capture the multidimensional behavioural and psychological factors influencing academic success. This proof-of-concept study investigated whether CareerQuestXR, a custom-built Extended Reality (XR) aptitude assessment system, could address this gap by generating differentiated multidimensional student profiles and evidence-based academic stream recommendations. CareerQuestXR evaluates students across four domains: Intellectual (verbal and numerical reasoning), Cognitive (working memory and spatial processing), Psychological (stress management and emotional regulation), and Behavioural (persistence and adaptability). Objective VR performance metrics are integrated with Holland’s RIASEC model and the Big Five personality framework to generate Academic Alignment Index (AAI) scores indicating student-programme fit across 21 University of the Western Cape (UWC) academic programmes. A pilot study (N = 15) was conducted using purposive sampling, with domain scores, behavioural indicators, psychometric profiles, and AAI recommendations analysed through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and strategic case sampling across three research questions (RQ).