Prompt: In your educational domain (e.g., K-12, higher ed, corporate), what type of XR would be useful to enhance your instructional activity? Why?
I am lucky to work at an innovative institution where XR technologies are used to enhance student learning. I recently changed positions within my department to lead the 3D innovations team, and I am excited to pair my educational studies with the good work that’s being done in my department.
My colleague, Gary Wisser, is a very talented 3D developer. Our medical professors will bring him bones to scan, which he then converts into digital 3D renderings. These digital assets are uploaded to Sketchfab for other medical schools to use. He’s been able to help professors enhance student learning with his 3D rendering because the assets are no longer 2D images. Students can move the view and manipulate the bones to see how the body moves. This helps in their learning and understanding of the body. I have included a few examples of Gary’s work below.
Another project we currently have underway is a virtual surgery room for our college of podiatry. Here students can practice their skills in a safe environment. This is an ongoing project that was developed for students to experience in a full immersion VR headset; however, a web-based version is also available for those without a headset. This project will be complete and ready for student use by the end of 2022, and then we will be moving on to Phase 3 of this project and adding haptic feedback to the surgery simulation.
Medical education is a great platform for mixed reality education. Patient simulations in VR and AR are just the beginning. I am in talks with other professors about how we can bring medicine to the Metaverse, and what that might look like for our future students. Haptics is another great addition to the XR world, and we are testing out the impact those devices will have on medical procedures.
It’s an exciting time to be in the medical education field!
Resources:
Moore, T. (2020, November 12). Projects & Innovations. CETL. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://cetl.westernu.edu/cetl-projects-innovations/
Wisser, G. (2022). WesternU3D. Sketchfab. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://sketchfab.com/WesternU3D
