Experts' review of a virtual environment for virtual clinical simulation in South Africa

Abstract

AbstractVirtual reality (VR) is becoming ever more used within the field of education. During this study, the researchers created a virtual environment (VE) for use in Southern Africa, where students could practice managing a young adult with a foreign object in the airway. The aim of the VE was to determine whether a viable, “home‐made” solution could be created which could also be expanded later on to incorporate more scenarios. This was due to the expensive nature of existing systems for virtual clinical simulation. To determine whether the VE is usable, two expert review panels assisted in testing the VE. The first‐panel being Computer Science experts and the second Health Science (HS) experts. Each panel evaluated the environment and the scenario using heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthroughs. The recommendations made during each of the expert reviews were implemented to improve the VE, thus enabling students to experience an accurate, virtual scenario that could positively influence their learning experience. The findings and recommendations made during the expert reviews are presented in this paper to assist in improving future developments within the field of VR in HS education, especially for developing countries in Africa.