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How might VR training connect us? Disconnect us? Develop our skills? Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay. CC0<\/p><\/div>\n
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The RRU MALAT Program journey has brought our cohort to course LRNT 526, Inquiry into Contemporary Issues in Learning Technologies.<\/a> In this course, we will be using the practice of critical inquiry to explore a learning technology through the lens of a specific learning experience and a further, deeper dive into a subsection of the use of that technology. I have joined Jeff Clemens, Alastair Linds, and Anita Fahrenbruch to form Team Anonymous Dumbo Octopus<\/a>\u00a0as we embark on an examination of Virtual Reality (VR) and its use for developing communication skills. Our learning activity is the VR game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes<\/a>, which is a part of the curriculum for\u00a0MGMT 1103<\/a> at Bow Valley College. This VR game is intended to help technology students develop teamwork skills.<\/p>\n Our team blog post<\/a>\u00a0(Boyce, Clemens, Fahrenbruch, and Linds, 2019) highlighted some early discoveries in our readings and included reflections on:<\/p>\n After this initial foray into the topic of VR for communication skills development, this author continued to examine the use of VR educational technology within the context of healthcare. A measured<\/p>\n Can VR be used to develop empathy in healthcare providers? Photo by Pixabay user 3dman_eu. CC0<\/p><\/div>\n investigation of the affordances of VR, paired with research on how these affordances could be leveraged to optimize learning outcomes was found. Lok, Ferdig, Raij, Johnsen, Dickerson, Coutts, Stevens and Lind (2006) supported what we learned in LRNT 523, Foundations of Learning and Technologies;<\/a>\u00a0that all edtech innovations must be underpinned by sound foundational pedagogy. Lok et al. (2006) take the time to remind us of the need for authenticity in learning experiences as learners expect real-world problems. Lok et al. (2006) informed that a sense of learner control and social participation in their learning will also help to push learners to the Zone of Proximal Development, reducing boredom and frustration. In line with Papert’s constructionist thinking (Ackermann, 2001),\u00a0 Lok et al. (2006) also supported that learners using edtech such as VR require the opportunity to apply the learning and represent their knowledge, as well as their understanding of the problem, by creating artifacts of learning in the virtual world. Keeping these themes in mind may help to evaluate how robust a VR training environment is as well as question the need for the added expense given current training opportunities already present.<\/p>\n This author’s intention is to dive deeper beyond the use of VR for communication skills development and find research to support its use in developing healthcare practitioner empathy and compassion. Prasolova-F\u00f8rland, Steinsbekk,\u00a0Fominykh, and Lind (2017) argued that most VR simulations tend to focus on skills development and cognition, lacking the support for developing teamwork and communication. Prasolova-F\u00f8rland et al. referenced the TeamSTEPPS framework<\/a>\u00a0from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a supportive program to use with VR to optimize competencies of team performance. The TeamSTEPPS approach focuses on communication, leadership, mutual support, and situational monitoring (Prasolova-F\u00f8rland, et al., 2017). Learners in Prasolova-F\u00f8rland et al.’s study all felt that the VR training enhanced their understanding of the importance of clear and structured communication; however, only 37.5% of learners felt that the training allowed them to grasp the importance of clarifying the patients’ wishes in order to set common healthcare goals for treatment and follow-up. If VR is to be used to develop empathy for patient experience, learning scenarios will need to be structured for these outcomes, perhaps utilizing emotion and immersion to garner deeper understanding.<\/p>\n Further exploration of how VR may be used to train healthcare teams will be necessary to investigate the unique use of VR for understanding the patient experience. Shin (2018) offered that the complex narratives supported by VR allowed for more emotional reactions to the stories. Does this emotional connection deepen the experience and thus, the engagement with the learning? After reading this post, I ask for your reflections and ideas below in the comments section to guide my inquiry on this sub-topic. For additional prompting, I offer these questions:<\/p>\n Questions for reader engagement<\/strong><\/p>\n CB<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget\u2019s constructivism, Papert\u2019s constructionism: What\u2019s the difference.\u00a0Future of learning group publication,\u00a05(3), 438.<\/p>\n Boyce, C., Clemens, J.,\u00a0 Farrenbruch, A., & Linds, A. (April 14, 2019) [blog post] Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) and the Development of Soft Skills. Retrieved from https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0051\/virtual-reality-vr-and-augmented-reality-ar-in-the-development-of-soft-skills-team-anonymous-dumbo-octopus-ask-about-the-name\/<\/p>\n Prasolova-F\u00f8rland, E., Steinsbekk, A., Fominykh, M., & Lindseth, F. (2017, June). Practicing interprofessional team communication and collaboration in a smart virtual university hospital. In\u00a0International Conference on Smart Education and Smart E-Learning<\/i>\u00a0(pp. 191-224). Springer, Cham.<\/p>\n\n
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