Brighton & Sussex Medical School (BSMS)

When it comes to emerging technologies, a critical problem that is often witnessed within the industry is the tendency to adopt the new tools available without first critically reflecting on what is it that it is tried to be achieved? Who is the audience for whom the experience is designed for and, most significantly, is the technology chosen appropriate or even needed for the job? And when it comes to education and training more specifically, how are you going to monitor the student’s learning? What learning theories and pedagogic methods should inform the design of the intended experience to make it effective? What are the intended teaching and learning objectives for that specific task?

“It’s should never be just tech for the sake of tech. You need to know why and for what you are using that technology for” – Dr. Claire Smith, Head of Anatomy, BSMS.

Understanding the teaching and learning objectives is the essential first step in order to make informed choices in regards to which tool is the best one for the job. At Brighton & Sussex Medical School, the potentials and limits of immersive media systems within Medical Education and their impact on our brain spacial abilities, have long and critically been explored and researched. Their interest, knowledge, and experience within this area have led the BSMS, in collaboration with the Heads of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, to the establishment of a Virtual Reality interest working group at the beginning of 2019. The Group works as a central research and experimentation hub and a model of good practices to refer to when planning the design of educational virtual environments.

The research group has partly been fund by a Learning & Teaching Grand which has previously served the BSMS for the adoption of a few Oculus Gos in 2018. The headsets have been a thought-through investment after evaluating the effectiveness of their 360° Anatomy Lab Virtual Tour (see below) pilot program by testing it on students using Google Cardboards. The choice of Oculus has also been guided by the specific and needed technical capabilities of the model – wireless and usable off-line. 

link to the tour in a new window

The objective of the Lab was to allow those that could not physically access it (e.g. open day’s visitors and distant applicants) to have a look at it and, more significantly, to psychologically prepare the medical students before entering it for the first time. The 360° experience of the Lab has resulted effective in reducing students anxieties and in helping them later maintain the focus on the tasks executed inside of it.

“Teaching and learning objectives are key. Not just having a pretty image to look at. That’s what we try to do here. Inexpensive and easy to use tools with good learning outcomes” – CJ Taylor, Learning Technologist, BSMS.

(BSMS 360° Virtual Animal Liver)

Other experiments and uses of immersive media for teaching anatomy have also been made to support surgent better familiarizing, for example, with the practices involved with dissection. 360° virtual animal body parts (e.g. Liver, see picture above) and human tissues (e.g. Hearts) educational experiences have all and beyond been developed and tested in a way that could always serve and meet the intended teaching and learning objectives, as well as outcomes. When appropriate the BSMS is open to sharing their educational virtual resources with other schools. For instance, in Pharmacy in order to learn about how drugs are metabolized by the liver, students’ need to also have a good understanding of the anatomy of this very specific body part. The virtual liver developed by BSMS could, therefore, be directly used by Pharmacy students to support this part of their learning, or be adjusted and edited in accordance with their specific learning objectives if needed.

Today BSMS Learning Technologist CJ Taylor, in collaboration with Learning Technologies Adviser Nick Feather, is currently experimenting on a GP Simulation Tool designed to be interactive and to be used with the Oculus Go headsets. The underdevelopment tool takes its inspiration from the work done by Oxford Medical Simulation, an award-winning company who has been developing VR solutions for Optimal Patients Care simulations. 

TAGS: BSMS, Virtual Reality, 360, Anatomy