Enhancing medical education with VR
Hema Viswambharan, Senior Research Fellow from Leeds Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine, School of Medicine, is working on research around diabetes and cardiovascular complications funded by the British Heart Foundation. Recently, she became a module lead on cardiac physiology and is hoping to integrate VR into teaching modules to immerse and engage students.
The company Awake Health released the VR application ‘Awake Heart’ to give students an immersive exploration of the human heart, along with annotations. Hema used the experience to facilitate learning in her module. She plans to develop new immersive experiences, including laboratory demonstrations.
Location: XR Space
Aims: Introducing VR experiences as immersive teaching resources in the School of Medicine.
Impact: Students’ engagement with the module, and their motivation, increased due to the immersive learning resource.
How did you use HELIX for this project?
"My goal for my teaching package focused on laboratory experiments was to enhance student teaching experience through immersive technology, particularly in anatomy and physiology. During this process, I discovered that HELIX already offered a commercially acquired VR scenario called Awake Heart. This allowed the students to explore the anatomy of the heart in 3D and complete a series of questions and quizzes at the end using the VR headset, so this tool was perfectly aligned with my objective."
How did working with HELIX help you achieve your aims?
"The Helix facility has an outstanding support system for using VR technology to enhance teaching and learning. They already had pre-set scenarios available that made it possible. Moving forward, I'll be collaborating with the team to develop new immersive experiences for modules which will include filming my lab, and health and safety information with added annotations."
Which ‘top tips’ would you offer an educator at the University of Leeds if they wanted to include VR in their module?
"We can't forego the standard teaching techniques and the learning outcomes, so start with a clear objective, define what you want to achieve with the VR, and use it as a complement to the in-person lectures, to let students reinforce what they’ve learned."
What other benefits are there for using VR?
"The hands-on nature of the VR learning helps student to visualize process in real time, increasing accessibility for those who may not have access to placements or work experience."
How do you feel students have been impacted by using VR in the module?
"VR brings out the quieter students to be interactive and asking questions and peer learning. They engage and interact much better because they have to. VR offers a multi-sensory learning experience, visual, auditory, tactile feedback that helps a student grasp the complex concept. Even in traditional teaching, I have always recommended to students to use all your senses when you learn, and you’ll retain the information much better."