Author: Line Grønhaug

Through the Oculus Quest 360 goggles, the students could “visit” a patient. During this home call, the students were able to see the patient and the real-life surroundings, assess the patient, and, as a part of the study case, solve a quiz.

After the 360 experience, the students filled out a survey to rate the immersion. All agreed on the effectiveness of virtual learning and hoped to have more of this type of education.

The State Secretary at the Ministry of Research and Higher Education opened the panel which was held to launch a government report on the state of digital technology in higher education in Norway.

Watch a recording of the meeting (in Norwegian) here.

Atle Løkken was invited to share insights from the ongoing 360ViSi Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance and also his 20 years of experience with development of digital tools in education. In fact, the report mentions the DigiSim project, another Erasmus+ project Løkken has been a part of, and the predecessor to 360ViSi.

DigiSim is an app where student nurses can train on different procedures. The app is free of charge and can be downloaded on Google Play and App Store.

Digital technology can enhance pedagogic development

The new national report shows that the use of digital technology in higher education can contribute to:

• more student-activating teaching methods
• pedagogical development, especially in practical subjects
• increased access to higher education

The report concludes that the use of digital technology must be an integral part of a holistic learning and teaching design, and teachers and students must have both an understanding of and competence in the use of digital tools with a pedagogical goal.

Invited to present the 360ViSi project to VID

After Atle Løkken talked about 360ViSi in the meeting, he was contacted by VID Specialized University, an accredited, private higher education institution in Norway.

VID has a project where they try to develop a digital learning environment using 360° video and would like to connect to share information and lessons learned.

Løkken was invited to talk about 360ViSi in a digital seminar VID is holding on the use of 360° video in education on 4 February – where Mari Linn Larsen and Kåre Spanne from the 360ViSi team presented and demonstrated the results from the project.

So – exciting times! We are so happy when information about 360ViSi reaches other individuals, companies or institutions who we can collaborate with or learn from! 

When the simulation has been made in the editor, a tool for output where the user can watch and take actions in the simulation is needed. This is the 360°Player, which is being created by project partner ADE Ltd. Read more about it here.

Status of the simulation player

The next step for the team is testing of the tool’s nodes in the player; that is the questions, choices and information which will lead the user through different paths in the simulation.

The goal is that the player will be compatible to most internet browsers, and that it includes ways for teachers to evaluate the student’s results and progression. This is some of the work that still must be completed.

During development, several issues have arisen which will have to be solved or decided upon: Where will the player be located and how will users access it? How will the player import the server simulations? Who will have control over the player and manage the data? Will there be need for registration to use it, and how should results be exported to or by teachers?

We will let you know when all the pieces of the puzzle are in place – and show you how it works.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the 360°Editor and Player in this demo by Turku UAS and ADE.

This is one of the 360° video scenes in the Turku University of Applied Sciences’ virtual, interactive recovery room simulation. All the videos contain different phases, symptoms and statuses of patient care, that the nursing student has to interpret when practising perioperative care.

In this case, the 360° videos are built around a patient recovering from an appendectomy, but they can be applied to any learning situation. The recovery room case is just a practising tool to develop further the 360ViSi Editor constructed by Turku UAS staff as a part of the 360ViSi project.

Benefits of virtual simulation

Unlike a face-to-face simulation, a virtual one has numerous benefits. It allows the student to practice in real-like surroundings regardless of the time, place and schedules of other students and staff members. One part of the learning experience is to answer situation-related quizzes and to react to a patient’s symptoms. Answers and reactions gather data that enables giving individual and immediate feedback to the student.

Testing – a vital part of developing

At one of the Turku UAS’ meeting rooms, the nursing teachers tested the editor for the first time. As the Editor is still in the making, the task was seen as a bit complex. Working with an unfinished product may take the tester’s attention to technical challenges at the expense of content and fluency of the simulation.

To smoothen the path, the developers’ representative, who also happens to be the actor representing the patient in the videos, and the nursing teachers, who have written the simulation case, took the chance to meet face-to-face.

The goal is to make the 360ViSi Editor user interface so simple, that any teacher with just very basic IT-skills and some 360° videos, would be able to use it to create a 360-simulation. To develop the 360ViSi Editor further, a change of perspective is needed.

They will go through the simulation, create quizzes and check that the linking between videos tasks is logical. Next, the nursing teachers get to step into a student’s shoes and think of the simulation experience from their point of view. Progress needs feedback and ideas, and that is what the teachers are skilled at.

The 360ViSi project team was invited to the EU-CONEXUS PhD summer school in Zadar, Croatia, where the University of Zadar provided special training for PhD students about Professional and Scientific Communication and Networking in Multidisciplinary Environment.

The summer school had an interdisciplinary approach to research with practical examples for mind-mapping. The programme consisted of seminars and workshops held by experts, project proposals presentations, lessons on defining multidisciplinary projects proposals to fit the EU policies and the call rules and training about scientific communication and tools, resources and tips.

360ViSi: an international and interdisciplinary example

One of the invited lecturers was Dr Esther Navarro from The Catholic University of Valencia, who presented the 360ViSi project as an example of interdisciplinary research and teamwork.

Navarro portrayed the project as an example of how a team consisting of lecturers from different European universities, technicians and companies work together in the field of new technologies.

The project team works on several tasks. First, it provides teaching and learning tools to higher education using new methodologies. The second task is to develop solutions and content for e-learning, which is carried out by the universities’ and companies’ technicians. The third focus point is to provide new business opportunities for companies that elaborate services, products and technologies related to learning.

The 360ViSi team was introduced by presenting the different universities, tech groups and companies, the existing relationship among some of the members, the needs that originated our project, the type of project that it was and what it was about, needs and competencies within the partnership, interdisciplinarity within the team, barriers for interdisciplinary collaboration and adopted solutions.