From seed to reap: our young iterative journey through developing immersive learning and VR experiences

Today myself and my colleague delivered the session 'From seed to reap: our young iterative journey through developing immersive learning and VR experiences', to the Extended Reality in Education (XRE) Community of Practice, NHS England TEL Simulation and Immersive Technologies.  There were 70+ members in attendance from healthcare to learning technologist professionals within healthcare education.  When it got to the Q&A there was a great variety of questions asked on implementation, application and technical aspects.  The response we received was very impactful.  We both really enjoyed it, and Chris Gay, Project Manager – Simulation and Immersive Technologies, is a brilliant host.  Below is our presentation and feedback.

Feedback [more to come via the chat transcript and session evaluation breakdown report]:

• "Thank you for sharing your experiences Daniel Scott-Purdy and Godson Uma."
• "Thank you Dan and Godson!"
• "Fabulous session, thanks everyone!"
• "Great session, thank you."
• Lucia Vazquez Bonome - "It was a pleasure attending the session this morning, thank you both for your insightful presentation. I found it very helpful."
• David Mangoro - "Thanks for sharing in the meeting today."
  
  

Session evaluation:

Presentation:

Elevating scenario-based learning through Virtual Reality immersive wall suites

On 10 June 2025, myself, Cherylene Camps, Senior Lecturer in Paramedicine and Godson Uma, Digital Curriculum Support and Developer delivered the session 'Elevating scenario-based learning through Virtual Reality immersive wall suites', to NTU colleagues for the School of Social Sciences Showcase 2025 Day 2.  The session was well-received and created much rich discussion and ideas.  The two students who recently qualified from their BSc paramedicine course, that shared their experiences was a particular standout - so I am glad that I suggested this so the audience could hear their views directly and better represent their perspectives.  Our presentation is below.

NTU researcher - "#belonging at the NTU Social Sciences Showcase today.  Privileged to see the incredible work on...and the innovative VR development from Daniel Scott-Purdy and his team."

Senior Lecturer, Course Lead for the BA (Hons) Childhood and Education Studies (online) top-up degree, Nottingham Institute of Education - "I am so impressed by the incredible work you are engaged in and would be keen to learn more.  During the 2024/25 School Showcase event, I had the great pleasure of chairing a session led by Daniel Scott-Purdy and colleagues from IHAP.  The session (focused on immersive learning) was brought to life through some outstanding examples and brief demonstrations of how the immersion suite works in practice.  It was further enhanced through the contributions by students who had used the suite for practical exercises.  The team were passionate about this work and it was evident the students and staff had gained a great deal from this exciting learning resource facilitated through a team of experienced development staff who had bought the practical exercises to life.  A quintessential feature of the presentation was the teams recognition of areas for growth in the use of these resources.  The excitement, enthusiasm and expert knowledge of digital learning resources was bought to life by a team who are evidently hyper-focused on how we can work smarter through the use of digital technologies.  There are a wealth of opportunities for using such resources across different programmes and Daniel was gracious (both in the presentation and afterwards) in discussing ways in which the Childhood team might employ such tools." 

 

Reviewing a bit of immersive education literature

This is my output of a formative assessment of my Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE).  Review of 2 research papers, well book chapters in my case.  Following my teaching observation in April and teaching philosophy in January.

I realise I am a bit over the word count, which was set at 1200 words, but that is because I put a lot of time and effort into reading the chapters to be better informed, which was the primary learning objective for myself, and I wanted this to be a source of information for later use.  There was further potential for criticality and synthesising but I had to stop somewhere, it's only for a formative assessment.  However, it meant there's more appetite for further reading and potentially leading my own research in this area of my practice.

I received the following overall feedback.

"Daniel, this is excellent.  You’ve taken a topic that is current to the sector, relevant to your school, and challenging!  It’s a very impressive response.

Strengths

• The criticality you offer is excellence, speaking to the limitations of the articles not only in what they offer but sensitively to the context of your practice.
• The use of extended literature is something that you will be able to draw upon in your future assignments, including the written submission and professional conversation.

Areas for development

• You’ve already identified your biggest challenge – keeping to the word count.  As valuable as your insights are, I really want to stress how great this piece is!, you also need keep within the boundaries of the assignment.  You’re not penalised here but you could be further on.

An excellent submission and a real pleasure to read.

Please get in touch if you want to discuss this further."