Abstract:

National lockdowns due to Covid 19 have forced the education profession to use remote learning technologies and as a result learning has stepped into the digital world. This presentation will focus on a suite of accessible digital resources that were developed through the Head Start into Healthcare Programme and their use in education to enhance and support engagement and learning across Years 9 to 13 and into higher education. It will discuss the rationale for the use of the different technologies, all of which were designed so that they could be hosted on a multitude of different platforms and accessed through different devices to maximise the opportunities for remote engagement. This has enhanced the student learning experience and had a positive impact on the wider equality and inclusion agenda. The value of this innovative mix of approaches will be discussed with reference to practical examples and student feedback. Central to the Programme is an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experience enabling participants to explore through storytelling; the roles and responsibilities of different healthcare professionals; that healthcare is an inclusive profession which values diversity and the experience of a student embarking on a university journey from attending an Open Day, studying and then graduating and starting work. A be-spoke scenario was written by clinical specialists and university lecturers and filmed to create a virtual reality recording that can be used either in Schools using VR Headsets or remotely through the use of virtual reality ‘boxes’ and an app on student mobile phones. The immersive experience of VR is recognised as an effective means of enhancing learning outcomes with students remembering what they saw in VR and studies concluding that VR is a more memorable environment than traditional or class-based demonstrations. Alongside the VR film an interactive workbook was developed to introduce students to additional profession specific information and knowledge. It contains key information and facts regarding the individual professions, different methods for them to self-assess their learning and links to talking head videos and blogs. This approach is recognised as providing an opportunity that allows the student to digest knowledge and revisit the content as and when they wish to according to their own learning needs. This is supplemented with a 360 video of an educational clinical skills suite and simulated flat with a series of ‘hot spots’ where particular items, clinical interventions and risk assessments are identified and demonstrated which the Learner can visit and read explanatory information or watch a short educational video. The content of the hot spots can be adapted to provides age appropriate information enabling the material to be used with students across a range of academic years and knowledge and to layer up knowledge and understanding over time. With the restrictions on physical access due to Lockdown, the aim was to enhance students’ learning in a manner that was not merely recreating, or replacing, engagement in a physical classroom but also enabling activities, and access to facilities, that are not possible in physical settings. As a result of the combination of the immersive virtual reality film, the interactive workbook content, linked with the 360 video and descriptor ‘hot spots the project has created a rich and engaging Mixed Reality experience for students.

Keywords:

Digital Technologies, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Student Engagement and Learning, Healthcare.