Integrating Computerized Virtual Reality with Traditional Methods of Teaching Skull Anatomy

Abstract

The continuing education of health care providers is reliant on recently developed and emerging technological advances such as Virtual Reality (VR). While VR has been evaluated in other areas of teaching the effectiveness of VR to improve anatomical education is minimal. The project was a descriptive, evaluative study that compared the benefit of using VR in conjunction with a traditional anatomy lecture to traditional anatomy lecture alone. A convenience sample of 18 USU GSN students was used. Outcomes were measured on the differences between a twenty item pre-test measured baseline knowledge and compared with a similar post-test after completing their skull anatomy learning module. Comparison of the pre and post-test scores was completed using paired t-test to determine the improvement in scoring after participating in the lesson. Participants demographics (gender, sex, age, etc) were also collected to provide descriptive data. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 10.0 computer program. The mean for the pretest score was 12.39 and the mean for the posttest score was 16.83.Using a paired t-test, the difference for the group between the pre-test and post-test resulted in t= -7.607, p < .0001. The resulting confidence interval for the mean difference between the two tests was 5.68 to 3.21. The results were statistically significant, demonstrating that VR did improve the learning experience. Additionally, the satisfaction questionnaire showed that students preferred having the VR augmentation in their learning experience.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2002
Accession Number
AD1012462

Entities

People

  • Bruce D. Todd
  • Karla M. Atchley

Organizations

  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Brain
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Data Analysis
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Medicine
  • Physicians
  • Skull
  • Students
  • Teaching Methods
  • Three Dimensional
  • Virtual Reality

Fields of Study

  • Education
  • Medicine

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Medical or Health Care Field.