Elise Omfalos is working as a Learning Innovation Manager within the Queen Mary Academy providing strategic, developmental, practical, project and academic support for the development and enhancement of learning and teaching across QMUL.
In this article, Elise shares some of the immersive learning projects across QMUL and FMD.
In September 2022, I joined the Queen Mary Academy from the Royal College of Surgeons where I had met Professor Shafi Ahmed, the surgeon who performed the first surgery streamed live for students all over the world to watch and ask some questions . Professor Ahmed used the metaverse to join worldwide specialists during surgical operations, discuss cases and share medical images (e.g. CT scan, X rays and 3D models) with HoloLens. Professor Shafi also used HoloLens to enable third year medical students at Queen Mary to watch a live stream of his surgery rounds.
After starting at QMUL, I was keen to continue supporting immersive learning projects and got in touch with Ben Audsley and Dr Pedro Elson at FMD, as the faculty is at the forefront of Extended Reality (XR). Ben is the Resource Manager for the Institute of Dentistry, and his team showed me how they built an in-house VR training programme to improve communication between dentists and patients. I was very impressed that they could design that in-house, using a 360-degree camera and the VR software CenarioVR to film and edit from their offices at the Institute of Dentistry.
Dr Pedro Elson and Gian Paulo Canale from IHSE have inspired me and given me technical support to run a research project in collaboration with students on how VR training can foster employability. Pedro won the President and Principal’s Fund for Educational Excellence for his project on Empowering Skill-Based Education through Virtual Reality. He is currently working with Professor Chie Adachi, Dr Megan Bryden and student interns to compare similarities and differences in VR training for Chemistry and Medicine and they will share recommendations for how VR can be rolled out effectively across the university. This PPFEE Funding call 2024/25 is out and QMA are inviting colleagues to apply.
As a Learning Innovation Manager my aim is to leverage technology for learning. Part of this work involves me managing the Virtual Experiential Learning (VEL) community of practice and in this context, I meet colleagues from the whole university. You are invited to join the VEL community here. It is a safe space to discuss any XR projects among colleagues from the university.
Our guest for next session are:
Co-creation is embedded in our Strategy 2030 and Queen Mary Academy gives students the opportunity to undertake scholarship projects in partnership with staff via the Learner Interns Programme. Research topics have covered:
- Investigating hesitancy in the use of VR for Education
- How can we use immersive technology to create a sese of flow in learning
- What are learners views on the use of VR to develop employability skills
On this latter, figures show that there is an indisputable appetite for immersive learning:
Going forward, I would love to see an immersive lab used for teaching collaboration and research at Queen Mary, where staff could make the most of pedagogical, content and technological knowledge to build inclusive learning experiences.
I strongly believe that immersive learning can open the doors of opportunity.