Virtual Worlds in Health Care Higher Education

Abstract

Advances in information technology bring progress in distance education. Online education programs are pervasive, however, only recently has the Web 2.0 brought about interactive, dynamic distance based health care education in virtual worlds (VWs). VWs allow for real time representations of environments, manipulable objects and interactions between avatars or bots, creating a sense of realism and presence that is absent in traditional, flat online education. Presence has been linked to knowledge transfer and better learning. Second Life®, currently the largest virtual world, has been used in higher education, including health care education at the Duke University School of Nursing. Students have indicated higher levels of satisfaction with the learning environment and quality of instruction in this VW compared to other online learning systems. There is a need for further research in online education in VWs, and room for growth in applications of VWs in education.

Increasing student engagement through virtual interactions: How?

“…As already discussed in the literature (Childs 2010;de Freitas et al 2010;Herbet et al 2012;Hockey et al 2010;Johnson et al 2009), many researchers focus exclusively on the interactions that take place within the virtual world, where the environment provides the primary medium for communication and interaction. Nevertheless, the main contribution of our study is that it examines interactions in conjunction with their impact to learner engagement, in the context of using an orientation process to enhance learners' familiarity with the virtual world and boost the incentives for more intense interactions and therefore higher levels of engagement.…”

“…Virtual worlds provide the necessary context for different types of interactions either between the users and the content of the world or the users themselves. Typical examples of these types of interactions are the object creation (Allison et al 2012;Dalgarno and Lee 2010) and manipulation (Bredl et al 2012;Dalgarno and Lee 2010;), terrain editing (Allison et al 2012) and navigating around the world (Herbet et al 2012;Hockey et al 2010;Johnson et al 2009). Communication is, indeed, another important factor which increases the opportunities for interaction between the users; be it synchronous or asynchronous, verbal or written (chat) or through the use of avatar gestures (Carter 2012;Hockey et al 2010;Johnson et al 2009).…”

Determinants of presence in 3D virtual worlds: A structural equation modelling analysis

“…Avatars may move freely in the virtual world by walking, running, flying, or teleporting from one location to another, and may manipulate objects. They may stand up or sit down in various poses, dance with someone, and make human-like gestures (Johnson, Vorderstrasse, & Shaw, 2009). Virtual worlds offer a platform not only for education, but also for communication, business, and organisational development.…”

Training nurses and educating the public using a virtual operating room with Oculus Rift

“…Examples include training facilities for nurses [5,6] and doctors (e.g., in palliative care units [7]), health information centers, 3D visualizations of internal organs, team and triage training, as well as surgical training [8]. Such training is, on several occasions, reported to provide a cost-efficient and user-friendly alternative to real-life role-plays and training programs [7].…”