Educational Reality Research Articles

VPExam in Heart Failure Innovating Virtual Cardiac Care

Telehealth and Virtual care are growing fields of importance, but the loss of comprehensive physical exam creates barriers to managing complex patients especially those with heart failure. Disruptive digital tools such as VPExam virtual care combine augmented reality instruction of visuals with bluetooth stethoscopes and ECGs to improve accuracy by assessing volume status, cardiopulmonary auscultation, arrythmia detection, and providing structured data including remote patient monitoring (RPM) data, vitals, medication reconciliation, and labs. VPExam intervention has significantly improved outcomes for high-risk and underserved populations with heart failure discharged to Skilled Nursing Facilities and Home Care. VPExam QI revealed workflows for both routine and urgent cardiology consultation following heart failure hospitalizations resulted in moderate significance modification in clinical management in 84% of encounters, while being associated with a 40% relative risk reduction in 30-day hospital readmission rate and a 56% relative risk reduction in 30-day mortality rate. The review summarizes both challenges to cardiac transitions of care and the evolution of cardiac virtual care with actionable physical exam data to optimize readmissions and mortality that is especially relevant to the underserved populations of skilled nursing facilities and home bound patients served by home care agencies.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Virtual Reality in Higher Education: Research Trends and Productivity

This bibliometric study examines the overall research trends and productivity in virtual reality in higher education based on published articles (2010–2024). Initially, we identified 1,412 studies from the Scopus database using the search string ("virtual reality" AND "higher education" OR "tertiary education"). Finally, we selected 1,128 articles for analysis after filtering by articles, book chapters, review, and conference papers published in English within social science, psychology, multidisciplinary, arts, and humanities subjects. Utilizing Biblioshiny (R Studio) and VOSviewer software, we observed a significant upward trend in publications from 2010 to 2023. Most studies (31.8%) were in Computer Science, and the USA is the dominant contributor, followed by China and international collaborations with other countries. Gregory, S. (n = 14 articles) is the most prolific author, while the Catholic University of Avila is the leading institute (n = 22 articles). The leading source is the “ACM International Conference Proceeding Series” (n = 38 articles). The article “A Systematic Review of Immersive Virtual Reality Applications for Higher Education: Design Elements, Lessons Learned, and Research Agenda” by Radianti et al. (2020) was highly cited (1060). 'Virtual Reality' and 'Higher Education' were the most common co-occurrences among the authors' keywords. The most prominent theme based on the author’s keywords is "Innovative Education Ecosystems in the Digital Age." This study provides valuable insight into the research landscape of VR in HE. The study suggests a comprehensive review and meta-analysis of relevant studies for improved generalization.

A novel mixed reality remote collaboration system with adaptive generation of instructions

Mixed Reality (MR) remote collaboration supports a shared workspace and various non-verbal communication cues that enable remote experts to express ideas in an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) space to guide local workers in industrial physical tasks by creating Augmented Reality (AR) instructions, such as remote assembly/disassembly guidance, emergency maintenance, and training. However, due to the information non-symmetrical caused by geographical distribution, it can be challenging and high-workload for remote experts to create clear and detailed AR instructions for local workers to match spatial relationships with the local workspace, while comprehensively considering the situation information (e.g., task-related objects and partner’s environment) in complex industrial physical tasks. Advances in ambient intelligence bring ideas for building a new remote collaboration framework that supports the adaptive generation of instructions. In the study, we developed a novel MR remote collaboration prototype system, which can automatically and adaptively generate clear, detailed, and standardized AR instructions based on remote experts’ simple and intuitive interactions and local contextual information to assist remote experts in guiding local workers to complete industrial physical tasks, especially industrial assembly tasks. The effect of two interfaces on industrial assembly tasks involving relatively complex process information and environments was explored in a user study: one was a baseline solution that uses a typical MR remote collaboration interface to support remote experts to create instructions (RECI) using popular non-verbal communication cues in the shared local 3D stereoscopic scene, and the other was our novel interface that additionally supported the adaptive generation of instructions via context awareness (AGICA) on top of the typical interface. The result of the user study showed that AGICA significantly improves collaboration performance, reduces errors and workload, and enhances usability and user experience compared to RECI. This demonstrates that supporting the adaptive generation of instructions is a feasible way to enhance MR remote collaboration in industrial assembly tasks with relatively complex process information and environments. Our research findings have a certain guiding significance for the design of MR remote collaboration systems in such tasks.

Students’ stance towards translanguaging in an EFL oral productive assessment task

ABSTRACT Albeit the growing plurilingual research due to the new sociolinguistic realities in education and a reaction to the dominant monolingual bias, few studies have focused on plurilingual assessment and students’ ideologies towards using their plurilingual competence and resources such as translanguaging. A total sample of 36 undergraduates who completed a five-month EMI or ESP course in Catalonia, Spain, participated in our study. We examined their stance-taking discourse on a speaking assessment task in which they could draw upon all their communicative resources if they felt that it would increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their message. Findings suggested that, rather than two clear extreme positions, there is a continuum of positions in favour and against the legitimacy of using their whole plurilingual repertoire. Moreover, our results also showed the dominance of a deeply-ingrained monolingual mindset among the learners which leads them to implicitly or explicitly resist the possibility of translanguaging.

Virtual Reality in Education and the Co-construction of Immediacy

AbstractVirtual reality (VR) in educational settings is often promoted by commercial actors as a way to experience environments outside the classroom and a soon-to-be part of everyday teaching and learning. This study follows the development of an educational software package in a Swedish municipality that combines VR technology with 360° live footage from museums and science centers to enable students to visit these spaces from the classroom via their headsets. By focusing on the workarounds and configurations intuitively performed by teachers, students, museum staff, and technicians in this pilot project, different kinds of articulation work performed to make the technology fit with local conditions are identified, from hands-on repair and maintenance to the facilitation of interaction and presence. The collective effort put into making the technology disappear and create a feeling of unmediated experience or immediacy shows how global imaginaries about VR as an immersive technology are enacted by the participants, at the same time as the work put into the project made them challenge the idea of VR as a new everyday technology. This tension between the desire for immediacy and the hands-on work in the physical environment that goes into fulfilling these imaginaries points to the need for local production of educational technologies that recognizes their co-constructive, embodied, and situated nature.

New Constitution in Nepal: Fundamental Freedoms and Educational Rights Provisions, and Implications for Dalits’ Schooling

ABSTRACT When Nepal promulgated a new constitution in 2015, discourse around the ‘New Nepal’, post-monarchical rule, was powerful; the new constitution was perceived as a landmark text to provide a clear vision for New Nepal’s overall development. The poor state of Dalits’ human rights and educational realities were widely cited as critical issues requiring attention and expedited intervention during the constitution-writing process. Almost a decade later, however, no outstanding progress is evident regarding the overall development of the historically marginalized Dalits. This paper aims to interrogate the perpetuation of the dominant ideology, as the basis for the marginalization of people lacking power, in the new constitution’s fundamental and educational provisions by exploring its marginalizing semantic elements. We selected these semantic elements or linguistic categories through reading the new constitution. Our analyses expect to unfold the link between Dalits’ poor state of human rights and educational experiences and the provisions of the new constitution. This study helps expose the roots of inequality, exclusion, and social injustice by appraising policies of public interest in situations where human rights violations, illiteracy, and poverty have distressed the lives of marginalized people, as well as encouraging research on the problems faced by extremely vulnerable population like Dalits, who are not only marginalized in their place of birth but also in the diaspora.

A classroom experience for teaching and learning of high school geometry through virtual reality

This study explores the integration of virtual reality (VR) in geometry education and examines the immersive platform’s potential to enhance student engagement and understanding through a case report. While students appreciated the interactive and collaborative aspects of VR, they also faced challenges such as VR sickness and technical issues. Recommendations for future sessions include incorporating breaks and providing additional technological guidance. Future research will focus on addressing these challenges, evaluating long-term educational outcomes, and exploring the integration of other immersive technologies like augmented reality. The study contributes to the wide discussion regarding the importance of balancing technological innovation with pedagogical effectiveness for successful VR integration in educational settings.

XR4ED: An Extended Reality Platform for Education.

Recent developments in extended reality (XR) are already demonstrating the benefits of this technology in the educational sector. Unfortunately, educators may not be familiar with XR technology and may find it difficult to adopt this technology in their classrooms. This article presents the overall architecture and objectives of an EU-funded project dedicated to XR for education, called Extended Reality for Education (XR4ED). The goal of the project is to provide a platform, where educators will be able to build XR teaching experiences without the need to have programming or 3-D modeling expertise. The platform will provide the users with a marketplace to obtain, for example, 3-D models, avatars, and scenarios; graphical user interfaces to author new teaching environments; and communication channels to allow for collaborative virtual reality (VR). This article describes the platform and focuses on a key aspect of collaborative and social XR, which is the use of avatars. We show initial results on a) a marketplace which is used for populating educational content into XR environments, b) an intelligent augmented reality assistant that communicates between nonplayer characters and learners, and c) self-avatars providing nonverbal communication in collaborative VR.

Development of Augmented Reality Media to Grow Numerical Literacy of Elementary School Students

The use of augmented reality (AR) in education has shown potential to improve primary school students' numeracy skills. However, AR research for elementary school geometry is still rare. This study aims to develop augmented reality (AR)-based interactive learning media using the assembler edu platform to improve students' numeracy literacy in geometry subjects. The development method uses ADDIE, the research stages include needs analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The needs analysis identified problems such as the lack of interactive learning materials and students' difficulties in understanding geometry material. At the design stage, the storyboard and flowchart are made using assembler applications. Media development is done by combining components such as materials, geometry images, animations, and music. Implementation is done through trials by material experts, media experts, and field practitioners, as well as small group and large group trials. The evaluation results show that the developed media has high validity with a percentage of 92% from material experts and 88% from media experts, as well as a significant increase in student numeracy literacy with the percentage of completeness increasing from 6.15% (pre-test) to 79.8% (post-test). With an N-Gain Score of 0.52, this media is proven effective and feasible to use as an additional learning resource.. Recommendations for future research include developing content for other topics, testing in different conditions, and improving interactive features.

Applications of augmented reality (AR) in chemical engineering education: Virtual laboratory work demonstration to digital twin development

With advances in information technologies, virtual technologies have become a viable option for chemical engineering educators. Although traditional teaching methods remain effective, they have many limitations when presenting complex phenomena. Virtual technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) have shown great potential as an addition to traditional teaching methods. This study explored the practicality and potential applications of AR technologies in chemical engineering education. In this work, traditional 2D representations of CFD simulation results were replaced by AR experiences to visualise the flow pattern and assist the understanding of the working mechanism behind different devices. Other than CFD result integration, animations were also included in AR experiences for personalised training and inclusive laboratory work experience. AR-assisted training has shown good potential in reducing financial loss and equipment downtime due to improper handling. Besides delivering teaching content, the development process of a digital twin with an AR interface was used to demonstrate how virtual technologies can be involved in digitalisation in Industry 4.0. Beyond the technical contents, important design philosophies were also taught as part of the courses.

The Role of Virtual Reality in Patient Education: Exploring how Virtual Reality Technology can be used to Educate Patients about Complex Medical Procedures or Health Conditions

The purpose of this study is to see the extent of VR technology use in patients’ education concerning modern medical procedures and their conditions.

Technological innovation: Instructional communication media in History and Civic Education

Background: The teaching of history and civic education, intended to foster national identity, is not fully achieved due to the absence of technological innovation in the instructional communication media used in high schools. Purpose: This research explores the need for ICT among students and teachers as instructional communication media to promote national identity in history and civic education. Method: This research used the Research and Development (R&D) method. The initial design involved an exploratory qualitative approach, with data collected through interviews with teachers and students from four high schools in Malang City, along with documentation from the Kurikulum Merdeka. The data were then analyzed using interactive analysis techniques to understand the information technology and communication needs of students and teachers for simulating national identity in history and civic education. In the next stage, a development approach was carried out to construct a model for instructional communication media that incorporated technological innovation to simulate national identity in history and civic education. Results: The results indicate that instructional communication media for promoting national identity through simulated history and civics education require technological innovation in the form of the NUSANTARA.IN application, which offers. Teaching materials on history and civic education tailored to students’ characteristics, A virtual reality feature that provides students with a virtual learning experience in history and civic education, and User-generated content to build a network among students for learning history and civic education. Conclusion: NUSANTARA.IN, which includes three distinct features, is a technological innovation designed to serve as an instructional communication media, enabling students and teachers to simulate national identity in history and civic education. Implications: The findings from this study contribute to the theoretical advancement of instructional communication media by incorporating concepts such as virtual reality, user-generated content, and student networking in high school education.

Deconstruyendo la educación: una reflexión sobre algunos de los desafíos a los que se enfrentan los sistemas escolares latinoamericanos

This essay makes a critical analysis of some of the situations that Latin American education faces, in which the poor results of students compared to those of first world nations, the difficult and changing scenarios that teachers experience, and the great demands of society, that strive for higher quality education, require a school system that continually provokes profound transformations. The following identified actions do not in any way attempt to reduce the complex realities of education to a few elements; however, they point out actions in which attention could be paid to in favor of the continuous improvement of processes. Initially, it is considered essential that education systems recognize the pedagogical knowledge of teachers and involve it in the configuration of educational policies. On the other hand, a reflective study on the role of faculties in education is imperative, where there seems to be a disconnection between theory and practice and between the teacher that is planned to be trained and the one that is achieved. Finally, the perspective of making educational research the driving force with which pedagogical knowledge is built is highlighted.

A comprehensive study to learn the impact of augmented reality and haptic interaction in ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsy training and education

Simulation based training methods are gaining popularity as they could provide a platform for practitioners to gain hands-on experience without causing ethical issues. By combining augmented reality (AR) and haptics, a training method for percutaneous liver biopsy (PLB) could be developed providing realistic scenarios, and real-time visualization of the human anatomy and needle. Additionally, it could also provide real-time feedback to the practitioner. In this review, we describe the conventional PLB procedure, then discuss AR technology and its application in the field of medicine for image-guided therapies, especially, hepatic biopsy. Next, we summarize the associated devices, models and methods illustrating a few haptic simulators devised for training and gesture assessment. Lastly, we present a few potential approaches to integrate AR and haptic interaction to develop a PLB training simulator by accounting the existing challenges.

VIRTUAL REALITY IN EDUCATIONFundamentals, Devices, Applications and Innovation in Teaching

Virtual Reality (VR) has stood out as an innovative tool in education, transforming the waystudents learn and teachers teach. The integration of VR devices, such as glasses andsimulators, allows the creation of immersive environments, in which students can explorecomplex concepts in a practical and engaging way. Furthermore, VR offers opportunities fornew teaching paradigms, such as virtual visits to museums, simulations of scientificexperiments, and trips to historic places. This approach stimulates students' curiosity,creativity and engagement, making the learning process more dynamic and meaningful.Recent data indicates that schools and educational institutions are increasingly adopting VRas part of their pedagogical strategies, recognizing its potential for educational innovation.This work aims to demonstrate how Virtual Reality in Education is based on a promisingarea, capable of revolutionizing the way educators and students interact with knowledge.

Fulfilling the unmet potential: Harnessing ambition, autonomy, and agility in Northern Ireland's education system

AbstractDespite the divisions within Northern Ireland's education system along religious and academic lines, it has managed to maintain relative stability, or at least a functional inertia, over the past four decades. The full potential, however, of this system and in particular, the Northern Ireland Curriculum (NIC), has yet to be realised. This paper presents a comprehensive exploration of the intricate interplay between the NIC and Initial Teacher Education (ITE), bringing to the fore the footprint of Lawrence Stenhouse. It critically examines the salient features of the NIC, particularly its alignment with Stenhouse's pedagogical tenets, and its subsequent ramifications on ITE, for both its content and pedagogical strategies. The ambitions are, however, not without their challenges. The overarching shadow of an exam‐centric system stymies the NIC's full realisation, presenting a dichotomy between curriculum goals and pragmatic educational realities. The absence of a coherent Teacher Professional Learning framework also inhibited curriculum development. The Learning Leaders strategy, although yet to be implemented due to the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly and consequently lack of financial support, has the potential to pick up the baton of reform and help teachers and school leaders move closer to implementing the NIC in the way it was intended. The paper concludes by identifying the probable, possible, plausible and preferred ways forward for NI's education system.

Analisis Kemampuan Guru dalam Menangani Masalah dalam Belajar Mengajar di SMK Swasta Bandung Percut Sei Tuan

Although it is hoped that school children are able to deal with learning situations well, in reality students often experience obstacles in the teaching and learning process, which shows a gap between expectations and educational reality. This research focuses on a teacher from the Bandung Percut Sei Tuan Private Vocational High School (SMK). The aim of this research is to identify and understand the problems faced by teachers in teaching and the approaches used to overcome these obstacles through in-depth and open interviews. Interviews were conducted in the teacher's work space, with the aim of creating an environment that supports and encourages teachers to share experiences and their thoughts openly. The interview guide consisted of five questions designed to explore the main challenges in teaching, conflict resolution strategies, and the teacher's ways of dealing with students' low interest or difficulty in following lessons. The teacher identified major challenges such as lazy attitude towards studying, tendency to sleep, and high interest in playing among students. In facing this challenge, teachers adopt a flexible approach by providing short breaks between intensive learning sessions to maintain students' energy and focus. In terms of conflict resolution, teachers emphasize the importance of patience and self-control, as well as providing positive reinforcement for desired behavior. Teachers also emphasize the need to treat students with compassion and emotional attention, seeing them as biological children who must be cared for and guided with care. In addition, teachers realize the importance of collaborating with parents to support students' holistic development. The research results show that the main challenges faced by teachers in teaching at the Bandung Percut Sei Tuan Private Vocational School can be overcome through a flexible approach, positive reinforcement, and deep emotional attention. This approach is believed to create an inclusive and supportive learning environment, which in turn can improve students' emotional well-being and academic achievement. This research provides important insights for educators in developing effective strategies to overcome obstacles in the teaching and learning process

Understanding physics teachers’ professional identity: an activity theory perspective

ABSTRACT Educational researchers have been interested in studying teachers’ professional identity to understand this dynamic and multifaceted construct within personal and professional processes through different experiences. In this study, we designed a qualitative case study with Cultural–Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to examine physics teachers’ professional identity in Turkey. The study aimed to explore the elements of activity systems: teachers’ experiences, community relations, tools, resources, rules, division of labour, and teaching practices. Data sources were interviews, classroom observations and documents, which were analysed by constant comparative method. The results showed that teachers recognised the significance of student-centered instruction, but they often had limitations in terms of resources and exam-based education that led them to adopt traditional instruction. The findings emphasised the need for systemic reforms to balance instructional objectives with teaching realities, supply resources, and make the connection between teacher preparation and classroom enactment. The research results support constructivist epistemology and suggest that the physics education community needs to improve the quality of physics education in Turkey and globally.

Augmented reality in biology education: A systematic literature review

Augmented Reality (AR) has seen extensive utilization in the modern era, driven by rapid technological advancements. The aim of the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method is to meticulously analyze and assess previous research on a specific phenomenon in a systematic and explicit manner. The search was conducted on the Scopus database using the keyword "Augmented Reality," resulting in 209 relevant articles. Out of this total, 35 articles passed the journal selection criteria and were deemed ready for analysis. The article selection process was carried out using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) model for inclusion and exclusion purposes. Since 2019, there has been a rising trend in research on augmented reality. The issue of AR can be approached through quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and even development research (R&D). The most prominent author in AR research is NF Saidin. The data shows that the keyword "augmented reality" is strongly associated with "education" and "biology." These keywords are linked to concepts such as teacher training, augmented reality tools, teaching, biology learning, learning performance, e-learning, and virtual reality. Themes related to AR in education focus on teacher training in biology, which applies e-learning or mobile learning based on AR and virtual reality (VR). Articles were published by authors from 28 different countries, with authors predominantly from Asia. There are 15 institutions worldwide that fund AR research and publications. It can be concluded that the focus on AR in biology education will continue to grow, supported by the ongoing emphasis on technology in the modern era. This trend is reflected in the distribution year, research types/methods, instruments, areas of study, authors, keywords, authors’ nationalities, and collaboration patterns.

Clinical observation using virtual reality for dental education on surgical tooth extraction: A comparative study

BackgroundClinical observation conducted during the 3rd and 4th years of dental school is an important part of dental students’ clinical education. However, conventional clinical observation is associated with several problems, including the lack of opportunity for all students to assist during surgery. Virtual reality (VR) technologies and devices can be used to demonstrate clinical processes that dental students need to learn through clinical observation. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching dental students the surgical tooth extraction procedure through clinical observation using VR.MethodsWe recruited third- and fourth-year dental students and divided them into a VR clinical observation group (VR group) and a conventional clinical observation group (control group). The control group visited an outpatient clinic and observed an oral and maxillofacial specialist perform surgical tooth extraction, whereas the VR group watched a 360° video of surgical tooth extraction using a head-mounted display. After observation, both groups were surveyed regarding their satisfaction with the clinical observation and their understanding of the procedure.ResultsUnderstanding of the procedure and satisfaction with the observation were significantly higher in the VR group than in the control group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.047, respectively). Compared with conventional clinical observation, VR clinical observation improved learning motivation and medical thinking and judgment skills; however, interaction between professors and students was lacking.ConclusionsVR clinical observation using 360° videos might be an effective teaching method for students. However, to allow interaction between professors and students during clinical observations, using it along with conventional clinical observation is necessary.