Friday 8 March 2024

What is Immersive Learning and VR?

As part of the TILT Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning practice and scholarship group, for this current academic year members agreed to develop a Thrive learning pathway.  Thrive is Nottingham Trent University's Learning Experience Platform (LXP) that is a staff-facing online learning environment to deliver organisational essential learning and Continuing Professional Development.  I produced the following outline with contributions from members on the section 'Issues addressing'.



In meeting 3 of the group, members were invited to volunteer and contribute towards our first agreed collective output.  Myself and a colleague took on the sections 'What is VR and immersive learning' and 'Types of Immersive Technologies'.  But as 'Benefits/pitfalls' wasn't taken, I suggested I bring this under my section that I took on to produce; 'What is VR and immersive learning'.

I wrote this scholarly section myself rather than using generative Artificial Intelligence, as one of the main drivers of this group was to support my own understanding and practice in this specialist area.  To feed into my context and initiatives in higher education healthcare curriculum.  To best develop my knowledge is to learn through my own learning preferences of learn by doing and by producing something, which takes me through my own internal cognitive processes.  Below is what I drafted up and first published here as the primary author, before any changes were made by members.  I structured the piece around the following: definitions, benefits, challenges and opportunities.

Introduction

Immersive learning and Virtual Reality are complex, challenging and time and resource intensive to design.  Understanding on this topic and subsequent support and guidance are required in order to build confidence and competence for those wanting to design such innovative learning experiences.

In this first section, you will be introduced to what Immersive Learning and Virtual Reality is, including Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Extended Reality.  Followed by the key benefits to what these modalities offer to educational experiences, and the potential challenges and opportunities they present (Scott, 2024).

Defining Immersive Learning and Virtual Reality

Immersive Learning (IL) often involves, students and academics in this context, to engage and interact with a hands-on educational experience that enables and/or stimulates natural human senses (MacDowell & Lock, 2022).  IL enables educational experiences to “transcend physical space limitations to create educational opportunities that would not otherwise be physically possible” (Dick, 2021).

Immersive technology supports such experiences to be created, and therefore relates to the technical capacity to create virtual, augmented and mixed reality learning opportunities.  Virtual Reality (VR) often involves exploring and navigating a digital world, typically using a VR headset to maximise the immersion experience (MacDowell & Lock, 2022).  VR enables students and academics to experience realistic or imaginary digital environments and interactable digital objects within them.   An immersive experience allowing them to resonate emotionally and physically to what they are seeing, hearing, smelling/tasting or touching (Clark, 2022).  There are five potential VR types (Chalmers 2017: MacDowell & Lock 2022):

  1. Immersive – an environment, physical or digital, that enables and/or stimulates human visual, auditory, smell/taste and tactile senses.
  2. Non-immersive – multimedia and computer-generated environments and objects displaying through hardware such as computers, televisions or projectors.  Which don’t particularly enable and/or stimulate greater use of human senses.
  3. Interactive – an environment, physical or digital, where the user is able to control and change, digital or non-digital, objects or environmental characteristics, through hardware such as keyboards, VR headsets, body tracking devices etc.
  4. Non-interactive – an environment physical or digital,  where the user is unable to affect any control or change in, digital or non-digital, objects or environmental characteristics.  A passive experience with no ability to make action.  Hardware is still used, such as VR headsets, speakers, and visual displays.
  5. Non-computer generated – use of remote-controlled vehicles, drones or 360 camera footage (specialist or mobile phone capabilities), still image or video, to explore environments, and captured to later use in other VR and AR applications.  Which can then be utilised for immersive, non-immersive, interactive or non-interactive environments.

Augmented Reality (AR) enables the real world to be explored with a digital layer to create the illusion of a digital 3D interactive object.  Mixed Reality (MR) progresses from just a digital overlay to where virtual objects can interact with real world physical objects.  Extended Realities (XR) is often used as overarching catch-all term to encompass all immersive technology modalities (MacDowell & Lock, 2022).

Key benefits

The most common listed below, in no particular order:

  • Improved knowledge; critical thinking and problem-solving skills, decision-making and testing knowledge within the scenarios.  Encouraging and embedding higher order thinking and developing contextual understanding.
  • Inspires innovative and pragmatic approaches to learning and improves learning outcomes.
  • Enhances and transforms traditional role play-type activities.
  • Ability to make mistakes in a safe and low stakes environment.  Developing and testing approaches, behaviours and responses.
  • Appropriate for students that prefer to learn through experiential-based learning type modalities e.g. practice, investigation and collaboration.
  • Ability to experience and respond to situations in environments that are a challenge to access due to logistics, costs and safety.  Leading to improved preparation knowledge and skills to respond to situations in those environments.

Challenges/considerations

The most common listed below, in no particular order:

  • Level of understanding on the principles of effective learning design for immersive learning experiences.
  • Lecturer-to-curriculum content connection and alignment, and identifying what is possible (low or high bar) with available technology.
  • Time, resource and sometimes cost intensive to pedagogically design an immersive experience and technically set up/configure required hardware and software, and involve required stakeholders to support it.
  • Develop pedagogical guidelines, policies and best practices and communities of practice to ensure immersive technologies are used safely, effectively, and to their full potential.  Presented in a palatable format for the intended audience to understand.
  • Facilitator training to develop confidence and competence in using selected immersive technology/ies, respond to basic troubleshooting and ability to support others in using it.  Engaging in purposeful play and experimentation, and invite others to join in and share ideas can help.
  • User (student) induction (training) and/or play/exploration of VR environment and technology before going live in or on a real time-bound activity.
  • Facilitating group participation, including large group sizes and size of space, and identifying suitable locations to host the immersive learning.  Further exploration and consideration are recommended to develop effective design of immersive learning spaces.
  • Sourcing multimedia to support the immersive learning design.  Including ability to select available and appropriate video and still image assets to different situation or contexts.
  • Identifying, in some learning situations, the physical or digital environment map and interactable elements before roaming free in the learning event to avoid wasting unnecessary time.
  • General configuration, maintenance and care for immersive technologies.

Opportunities – when to use

Based on Laurillard’s (2012) six learning types,  IL and VR type activities may be suitably designed, predominantly, around practice, investigation and collaboration learning type modalities (MacDowell & Lock, 2022).  Enabling choreographed and scaffolded real-world scenarios and situations to be explored and inquired, leading to the practising and testing of knowledge and skills.  Leaning more into the practice learning type which is effective when students are given the opportunity to apply theory to practice, this can be achieved through learning by doing or experiential learning activities.  These type of activities enable students to learn and practise responses/actions and allowing opportunities to receive feedback via self-reflection, peer, lecturer or through the activity itself.  In order to improve their response/action through next time (Laurillard 2012: Scott 2022).

The following principles introduced by Clark (2022: Scott 2023) can provide a base for defining pedagogies, and to inform the design and development base VR and immersive learning experiences.

  1. Emotion – intense.  Emotional connection and affective impact to induce motivation.
  2. Attention – total focus.  An environment that commands and maintains undivided attention.  Blocking distractions and focusing on the experience to create full immersion.
  3. Experiential – learn by doing.  Carrying out real-world tasks to develop individuals recall and performance in response to something.
  4. Context – keep it real.  Use of real-world information, equipment, tasks and colleagues/clients/patients etc.
  5. Collaboration – communicating and working together as avatars or outside of the VR.
  6. Transfer – to real world.  Applying the knowledge learnt from the VR world into the real world.
  7. Retention (recall) – increases.  Consolidated long-term memory needs conditions (focused, vivid, intense, relevant, real, practical, contextualised, the impossible) and repeated practice to develop competent recall.

To supplement the above, considering Conole et al’s Forms of Activity (2004) continuum or axes approach, can help identify and articulate what and where the value is in each continuum or axes: individual <> social, information <> experiential, non-reflection <> reflection.  Furthermore, help analyse the intended learning design along with the digital tools and hardware that can support it.  For example, the difference and value of in-person synchronous immersive ‘3D’ experience, over an online asynchronous ‘2D’ experience.

To help consider pedagogy in the design of immersive learning, consider the following pedagogical and content prompts.  Adapted and expanded from Johnson-Glenberg’s Quality of Immersive VR in Education Rubric (QUIVRR) structure (Fugate & Macrine, 2022 p. 252)

  1. Define clear learning objectives that are in alignment to curriculum outcomes.
  2. Define how the learning objectives support higher order thinking and metacognition.  Consider evaluating through the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition (SAMR) model.
  3. Define if and how scaffolding needs to be present.  E.g. does the intended activity build up in complexity?
  4. Determine if the intended learning objectives are appropriate for immersive, VR, AR or XR environments.  Is the multimedia content afforded through such approaches?
  5. Identify the value of VR; with or without head set, synchronous or asynchronous, online or offline, same location or remote.
  6. Identify where users have agency and control over the learning, interactions, movements and decisions in the intended activity.  And are these congruent or reinforcing concepts of the multimedia content?
  7. Develop appropriate supporting learning material such as instructions, briefs and signposting to aid the immersive learning experience.
  8. Design an appropriate induction or tutorial exercise to ease users into the immersive environment, and provide appropriate guidance and safety advice where required.
  9. Identify where performative feedback will be given before, during and post activity.
  10. Determine where and how assessment will be conducted, if required.

Reflection

Identify suitable opportunities where you could you use IL or VR in your own teaching practices.

References

Chalmers, D. J. (2017). The virtual and the real. Disputatio, 9(46), 309–352. https://doi.org/10.1515/disp-2017-0009

Clark, D (2022) Learning Experience Design: How to Create Effective Learning that Works. London: Kogan Page.

Conole, G., Dyke, M., Oliver, M. and Seale, J. (2004) 'Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design', Computers and Education, vol. 43, nos.1–2, pp.17–33.

Fugate, J M B. Macrine, S L. (2022) Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning. The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England

Dick, E. (2021, August 30). The promise of immersive learning: Augmented and virtual reality’s potential in education. Information Technology& Innovation Foundation. https://itif.org/publications/2021/08/30/promise-immersive-learning-augmented-and-virtual-reality-potential [Accessed 1 March 2024].

Laurillard, D (2012) Teaching as a Design Science: Building Pedagogical Patterns for Learning and Technology. London: Routledge.

MacDowell, P. Lock, J (2022) Immersive Education: Designing for Learning. Cham: Springer.

Scott, D (2022) Digital Learning, Teaching and Assessment for HE and FE Practitioners. Northwich: Critical Publishing.

Scott, D (2023) Exploring a pedagogical rationale for VR and immersive learning [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2023/06/exploring-a-pedagogical-rationale-for-vr-and-immersive-learning.html [Accessed 1 March 2024].

Scott, D (2024) What is Immersive Learning and VR? [Online]. Available from: https://danielscott86.blogspot.com/2024/03/what-is-immersive-learning-and-vr.html [Accessed 8 March 2024].

Friday 1 March 2024

Trialling VR scenarios in the curriculum

This piece of work forms part of my longer-term vision and specialism in Virtual Reality (VR) and immersive learning, contributing to my current efforts:


Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) VR simulation platform enables users to engage and practice on demand patient care in true-to-life simulation scenarios, from their computer or VR headset.  Allowing users to learn from detailed feedback reports and track their progress via personalised analytics.  I personally like this VR content and platform as I have not seen any other product as high-quality as this, especially in terms of the interaction and improving knowledge; critical thinking and problem-solving skills, decision-making and testing knowledge within the scenarios.

After having an online demonstration of Oxford Medical Simulations in March 2023, including Bodyswaps around the same time which I was curious of and can gain access to.  I originally pursued an asynchronous approach with the overall purpose of obtaining feedback to generate use/business cases on prospective pedagogical purpose and interest for our subjects.  And to complement our existing VR suites and look to purchasing some headsets.  This piece also supports my digital learning strategy objective by scaling up our VR and immersive learning, through having access to VR-based content and the ability to use VR headsets with purpose – we have neither at the moment, but are actively used in other Higher Education Institutions.  After a couple of attempts of this, the timing wasn't right and it didn't take off.  However, one of the paramedic lecturers I invited to get involved in this attended a conference in Summer 2023.  He keenly contacted me afterwards to see how we can implement such equipment, reviving this piece of work and becoming a collaborator alongside me.  We met in August and discussed and combined our shared ambitions.  We held another meeting and invited a advanced clinical practice lecturer to widen the discussion on a potential business case and how we should approach it.  As we identified, this would be very costly and the current climate of tighten budgets and priorities wouldn't allow.  So we decided to see this as a fact finding and feedback obtaining exercise, to build a business case for long-term implementation and have the information in place when we have a greenlight.  I later discussed these plans with my head and she was in agreement and confirmed the financial restrictions.  It was later arranged through OMS in October to hold a demonstration of the scenarios and use with headsets.  This was a success and acquired some positive feedback from students and staff.  OMS later suggested setting up a 45-day trial to experience for a longer period and obtain more feedback, to support our business case - we were keen with this idea and wanted to proceed.  With the hope that a license can be secured for ongoing use and integration into our curriculum area.   I had a particular interest and emphasis on curriculum content connection on how it will be used, rather than people being excited by it then not to be used.  The drivers are two-fold: 1) pedagogy – the value it will bring to the curriculum; critical thinking skills, decision-making , practical skills development, support simulated practice hours and placement preparation.  Identifying strong needs and connections so that such equipment is used frequently and not stuck on shelves.  As well as ensuring that we deliver what we promise on our highly technology-enabled building and facilities (promoted on website) - we don't want to false advertise and be labeled fraudulent.  2) Technology – innovative and modern; keeping our digital curriculum current and competitive.

From 19th February 2024, I coordinated a 45-day trial of the scenarios with a handful of lecturers and some of their student groups.  Including an in-person demonstration on 27th February for both staff and students.  Primarily aimed for wider staff and students to experience the scenarios and technology, develop ideas on further possibilities, and to obtain further feedback to support the development of a potential business case for when funds to become available.  With the hope of evidencing the student and curriculum needs of why such technology is needed to support their learning through such immersive modalities.

Whilst I am pleased with OMS, as this business case develops I will therefore need to evaluate other platforms and technologies to make comparable decisions.  Of which one I was unable to attend in 2022, hosted centrally in the School of Social Sciences as part of a staff development day, Medical Realities.  However, the questionnaire for the trial includes questions around comparisons to previous experiences and technologies.  

I'll update this blog post as this piece develops.

Thursday 29 February 2024

Take me to my beach

From 23 September to 9th October Gary and I celebrated our first anniversary and main honeymoon in Thailand.  Two weeks at the other side of the world with two nights in Bangkok, hopping over to Cambodia for three nights.  Then heading to the beach area for four nights in Krabi, then another hop to Phuket for four nights.

Bangkok, Thailand

After two long flights we arrived in Thailand in the early morning - which was extremely hot and humid, a bit of a shock to our senses.  We were severely hit by jetlag this time around, leaving us feeling quite ill.  Little did we know it would last a few days.  Though we didn't waste anytime and got straight out into the city to explore.  Starting with Benchakitti Park, a lovely nature reserve in the middle of the city - tropical swamp-type habitat.  We went through part of the city to then circle back at the hotel, Maitria Mode in Sukhumvit 15.  Checked in at 12pm and had a short nap.  Feeling a bit more refreshed we explored the hotel and pool on top of the hotel.  There were dragon flies swarming around the top, this was an interesting sight to see.






In the early evening we got the hotel's tuk tuk to the nearest Sky Train station to take us to Siam, to explore a busy cosmopolitan area.  Feeling peckish we then headed back to our hotel suburban area and ate at a vegan cafĂ© called Veganerie.  Afterwards, a short walk away to a cocktail bar Zanzibar, which was like walking into a rainforest.  We could here frogs and they had guppie fish at the entrance.  Whilst there we watched a live band.  They eventually asked us for a song they could sing, so I suggest a P!nk song and they chose Try.  Lovely cover version.  Was a nice touch when they were looking at us singing it.  We made a cat friend whilst there that we called Stumpy - I think it had three legs.


Whilst in Bangkok we had planned going to House of Heals, the home of a famous Thailand drag performer, Pangina Heals.  We weren't sure if we'd go going on how the jetlag felt, but we got a second wind and went and dropped by at her high-rised club for the Chain and Whip drag show!  We both felt nervous going in as it located in the Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel - a very posh and high end place.  A great show of performances.  A well-deserved lie in was in order now, and to align to Thailand timezone.






The next day we headed to the the Grand Palace, by Sky Train and boat.  For Gary he was revisiting it 10 years after he first did but a new experience for me.  Taking a break after, we witnessed lightning strike, if the temple gods were aiming for us they only just missed!  We took refuge in a nearby cafĂ© to let the rain pass, but it didn't and we had to make a rather wet run for it to the boat. 










A bit to eat at Thai Kitchen, and freshened up, then made our way to a sky bar and walk, at the King Power Mahanakhon, the tallest building in Thailand!  Challenging my fear of heights (Gary got an embarrassing video of me being scared).  We had a lovely morning dip before we got ourselves together to fly to Cambodia!





Cambodia

We landed in Cambodia but in a post-trauma state.  We experienced an internal flight with violent turbulence.  We both literally thought it was the end, a very dark experience indeed.  However, the plane incident soon became a thought of the past as we focused on the activities to come.  Our hotel gave us some extra touches to remind us it was our honeymoon.


On the first day we visited all the Angkor temples with our really helpful guide Tangiy.  It was like having a couples photoshoot at Angkor thanks to him.  A great day wandering around the temples and learning the history and mythology of the site.  Sights of monkeys, which one stole Gary's water.  And seeing the infamous Tom Raider temple - my favourite as it looks awesome how nature has reclaimed it.  A monsoon in the afternoon forced us to take refuge in a smaller temple.  A personal credit to Tangiy Ouk for taking the time to make our experience even more memorable by recording a tour.  Cambodia is super friendly and helpful.












The second day, we explored a bit of Siem Reap.  Then relaxed by the hotel pool all afternoon, swimming and drinking cocktails.  Taking the complementary hotel massage in the late afternoon, which I didn't like as it was too harsh and no oil products were used.  Then we took ourselves to experience Siem Reap's night life by looking at some night markets and getting grub and drinks on the infamous pub street.







On our final third day, a second visit to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise.  Although it was too cloudy to see it, but we got great pictures regardless.  We went in pure blackness with a torch which was quite eerie to begin with.






Onwards back to Thailand into beachy Krabi.

Krabi, Thailand

A short evening flight away to Krabi, we arrived at our spa hotel, The ShellSea.  We really enjoyed our hotel upgrades as we travelled around - just the way we designed it.  We explored the hotel and we were just in awe of it's peacefulness and private beach.  We couldn't wait until morning to see it in the day.  We spent the first day exploring around hotel again, and the private beach - just gorgeous, and the sea was so warm.  We hung around by the pools, drinking cocktails - especially up the the swim up bar.  We hardly left the hotel which isn't Gary's usual style but he could quite get used to it when it's this gorgeous and even comes with an aromatherapy massage!  The massage in the afternoon was brilliant and just how a Thai massage should be done.  As we were a very short walk away from a natural history point, the shell cemetery (1 of 3 in the world apparently), while the sea was out we walked right up to it - free entry that way too.  The sea there has very quick tide cycles though - changing our sea view completely.  We uncovered corals, creatures and different types of shells.  Which the hotel draws inspiration from. I collected some shells for myself and some as gifts.  As it was a hotel day, we had food there Food at hotel.
















We took a trip to Ao Nang, the local town and explored what was on offer there.  Throwing in some cocktails.



The next day in the late morning, we set off to Railay beach via Ao Nang.  Gary has long praised this beach and I certainly see why when I got there.  Gary is returning, almost exactly ten years since he first did.  He felt emotional on the longboat ride in.  It was epic to see the stunning landscape again and this time for him to see it from a different angle, the hidden beach behind it!  Which became my favourite beach ever.  I love the geological rock formations in Thailand, so stunning.  Later that day we took a walk up Monkey Trail which is in Ao Nang.  Before we set off back, we watched a pyro show on beach, and saw the close of the sunset.  Krabi really has beautiful flora, fauna and (phallic) rock formations, including cheeky monkeys and gnarly lizards.

























We now head to our final destination, Phuket.

Phuket, Thailand

We travelled by car for about three hours around to Phuket, and arrived at Manadarava Resort and Spa by late afternoon.  The last hotel of the trip set in a lush rainforest environment with streams flowing through the undergrowth and rooms and pools hidden within it.  We took toured the hotel looking at the several themed pools it had.  We strolled the area up to the beach, before the daily rain storm hit us.  We ate at the hotel restaurant, on a lovely balcony that had ponds between the tables.  To our surprise, there were tree frogs in them, which sound like a squeaky fart which is what I originally thought was happening.

The day after we did our proposed pool day tour, experiencing each themed pool.  On our exploration we found a very apt Honeymoon sign and decided to try recreate some of the Instagram couples photoshoot poses but failed miserably!














We headed out to a local restaurant and planned and booked our trip tour to Ko Phi Phi islands.  Our first island was the ultimate pure shore at Maya Bay, it was gorgeous now they've limited filthy tourists like us!  We toured a few other islands after.  One of best experiences I had was swimming in the sea with a snorkel. Seeing the incredible coral reefs underneath, with fish I only have seen in an aquarium and on TV.  Was a highlight seeing parrot fish too.  There was another shoal of fish that kept gathering near us and jumping and nibbling our feet. Me and another woman were screaming in fear!













Not much the day after, as we have had a few busy days, so we had a hotel and pool day.  But as the 4th October, which is the day it was this day.  We have been married one year, and together eight years.  So we celebrated our first anniversary last night by enjoying a lovely meal at our hotel and re-reading the summary of our special day.  So many great memories made, and rest of our lives loving one and another.  The day after we had booked a Thai cooking class and made a gorgeous a spicy salad and Thai green curry dish.  We ate a little bit straight after, but we got them to deliver it to one of the hotel restaurants to eat later.  We got a cute little certificate on completing it.




The last half day was spent around the pool, before the long journey home begins.  What an epic and memorable two weeks it has been.  We're going to miss the scenery here.