James Hayes

Ara Institute of Canterbury

Thursday 4 October 2018
2.30pm-3.00pm
Concurrent Session 3B

Presentation Title

Adaptive Effective Digital Learning Intertwined With ML, AI, And VR Simulation

Abstract

Education is a major part of your organization but delivering the same information to all learners regardless of their needs and abilities is an approach driven by linear methodologies. Adaptive learning is not only more efficient but provides you with the next level of sophistication needed to create more challenging learning designed to engage the mind.
Make way for a new generation of digital learning focused on impact. During the presentation we will explain how virtual reality simulations can provide life-like experiences in a safe, immersive, realistic environment and you can assess using data-driven analytics whether courses are truly delivering on learning objectives. This in turn allows you to evaluate individual performances as the course progresses. Combining practical skills assessment, virtual reality, and Machine Learning to achieve the ultimate blended delivery that learners can engage with will also provide a greater ROI. 
Rather than building courses that treat every learner the same way, this pedagogy gives you the freedom to create courses that dynamically adapt to each learner’s needs and abilities. You may choose to deliver different content based on the results of an activity, the learner’s response under pressure or prior knowledge being exhibited. 

In 2015 the medical simulation at Ara was somewhat problematic. We have over 35 students in each year and only one simulator. Furthermore, from a governance point of view it is not ideal to have live radiation in a teaching environment. Switching to VR simulation enabled the students to rapidly see what errors they were making as for the first time they could image “the patient” and the tutors could allow them to make mistakes to see the consequences and learn from them. Ara has a key strategic goal of “personalised and flexible stutend journeys”. Adaptive digital education based on blockchain technology allows each student to have their own course ccreated for them as the software picks up their knowledge gaps and fills them. Another strategic goal is having all students “work ready”. Enabling VR simulation allows the students to use the latest style of machinery that they will be using when they start their jobs. Previously they had trained on a 35 year o;ld machine which was not used any more. Finally we are embedding technology into the course delivery – this allows teachers to become learning architects creating excellent content rather than using so many hours in a face to face environment. The software that we are now using supports innovative, engaging, flexible, blended delivery. Plus we have the results to prove it works with a 80% increase on use of the simulation room, a 50% improvement on self direted learning, and a 20% (estimated) improvement on student success in the clinical environment. 

The concept of VR simuilation was introduced in latew 2015 when some major breaktrhoughs in VR technology and haptic feedback were introduced commercially. The HTC Vive and Occulus were the frontrunners (and still are). We researched what we needed and worked out how we could implement all of the required teaching components. This was a world first and we had a technical stretch in areas such as handling body parts and creating radiographihc images.
Possible speed bumps were negated by using using lean agile processes. These methodologies have been track proven in software development.
The development team  worked within a work management system on JIRA ensuring that the team is fully utilized during the project. This also allowed the team to review, iterate and adapt their workflows to ensure development was meaningful and efficient using lean development methodologies.
A project roadmap was agreed upon before initiation. Progress was tracked against this and any discrepancies were addressed immediately and the roadmap was updated to reflect the new project plan.
Weekly meetings with the VR developers to ensure communication and synergy.  This ensured that the product vision was clearly communicated to the development team and that the work on the project relates to the project goals.
Fortnightly reviews of development helped ensure we were all on the same page. 

Microsoft Power BI for displaying dashboards on the data of learners
Virtual reality simulation
Adaptive learning – Skilitics

Bio

James grew up in Dublin, Ireland but moved to the UK for his undergraduate degree in medical imaging. He worked in medical imaging clinically for a decade and completed a number of medical imaging post-graduate papers before moving into full-time medical imaging education at Ara Institute of Canterbury in Christchurch. He completed his tertiary teaching and learning qualifications at Ara and MSc at the University of Canterbury in 2015.  ​