This afternoon I and some colleagues, Lucian Milasan, Andy Farr and Isabel Turnbull, arrived in London at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House, to celebrate and reflect at the Student Nursing Times Awards 2024. 900+ people were in attendance. We were shortlisted for our team project on 'Behind the creative canvas: An innovative trauma-informed art-based educational approach using an immersive learning pedagogy' Developing innovative excellence and cross-disciplinary work that extends the original purpose of our virtual reality wall rooms. As well as providing other creative ways of using the space. I/we found this such a privilege to be shortlisted and attend such prestigious event. I was certainly ready to be inspired and empowered by the sector. Hopefully a win too, but we're against very strong competition. But I feel being shortlisted is an achievement in itself.
Anne Felton, Head of Department - "It is an incredible achievement to be shortlisted. Some institutions invest in priming projects and students for this national award each year. And you guys did it simply by a connection, commitment and passionate to develop a creative and powerful learning experience. I’m in awe 😊. Have a wonderful time!"
We didn't win unfortunately. However, out of 722 submissions entered, 200+ whittled down and to be selected into one of the 24 categories, we were honoured to be shortlisted. A proud moment to represent our department and be nationally recognised as a finalist, where we were all worthy of being winners. Throughout the day we certainly reflected on how we could progress and evaluate the scalability of this project even further, as well as new ones. We will emphasise this success when we present this project at Nottingham Trent University's Annual Learning and Learning Conference (ALTC) 2024 on 18 June.
"Colette Fuller - "Excellent, well done Dan! 👏"
Roy Scott - "Well done Son & Team great achievement"
Lucian update to the department:
"Dear All,
We thought we would share with you a taster of our experience at the Student Nursing Times Awards in London last Friday, before we reveal the full story in our next IHAP newsletter.
It was an amazing celebration and the atmosphere was simply exquisite. We were very proud (as you can tell from the pictures!) to represent NTU at this prestigious event. There were 200+ finalist shortlisted from 700+ nominations across the UK, which was a recognition of the high quality of the project we submitted for the “Teaching Innovation of the Year” category (“Behind the creative canvas: An innovative trauma-informed art-based educational approach using an immersive learning pedagogy”). We were indeed gutted not to win the award this year, but we all agreed that it was an invaluable experience on which we reflected constructively and already started baking some new ideas for next year – watch that space! Until then, you will find us at the TILT conference on 18th June where we plan to celebrate one more time the success of our project!
A huge thank you to our colleagues who nominated us for this award (and to those of you who kept their fingers crossed for us), and also to Anne Felton for supporting us throughout this journey!
Best wishes,
Lucian, Dan, Izzy & Andy"
Whilst it is great to be recognised nationally, the following pointers are also important to me:
- Collaborating with academics and making a positive difference with technology. Cross-discipline working that derives from openness and willingness to innovate.
- Getting the department on the map internally and externally; the efforts being made in our context.
- Developing excellence – I see that excellence is achieved through good practice. And good practice is achieved through piloting and iterating. And to do that it requires low and high stakes projects.
In my role and context, I see that excellence is achieved through good practice. And to me good practice is achieved through piloting and iterating - you have to start somewhere! And to do that it requires low and high stakes projects. Low stakes include the use of 360° imagery and videos for virtual tour type activities. High stakes include intensive time and resource planning to create meaningful multimedia, pre-record situations and simulations unfold. The latter is relevant to the work we did here and has paid off.
More on my immersive learning and VR work documented below:
- Virtual Reality wall
- Exploring a pedagogical rationale for VR and immersive learning
- Enabling positive Virtual Reality and immersive learning adoption: a journey of integrating VR walls
- TILT Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning practice and scholarship group
- What is Immersive Learning and VR?
- Assessing the current position of the IHAP VR walls
