Collaborative 360° Virtual Reality training of medical students in clinical examinations

Abstract

Simulation-based training in computer-generated environments has always played an important role in clinical medical education. Recently, there has been a growing interest in using 360° videos of real-life situations for training in health professions. Several studies report positive results from using 360° Virtual Reality for individuals, however, there are no studies on collaborative 360° Virtual Reality training. In this paper, we study how 360° Virtual Reality can support collaborative training in clinical medical education. 14 medical students from a 5th -semester medical bachelor’s program participated. In three groups, the students watched and annotated a 360° video of an authentic learning situation inside a collaborative immersive virtual reality space. The video shows a problem-based supervised examination of the knee collateral ligaments and the cruciate ligaments performed by students. Afterwards, the students should perform the test in a physical examination. The performance of the students has afterwards been evaluated by a professor with expertise in knee examinations. The results show that 12 out of 14 students gets a score of 2 on one or more test and thereby reaches the required learning objective. One student receives a score of 1 and one student does not perform any of the tests. The students use the tools provided by the software and different communicative strategies when working collaboratively in 360° Virtual Reality, which enables them to perform the tests in the physical examination. These results indicate that our pedagogical design in collaborative immersive 360° Virtual Reality can become a relevant addition to face-to-face clinical medical training.