360ViSi is an international collaborative project with the aim of developing innovative learning in health education using VR and 360° video technology. The project partners are the University of Stavanger (UiS), University of Nottingham (UK), Catholic University of Valencia (Spain), Turku University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Screen Story (Norway), Quasar Dynamics (Spain) and ADE Animations Designs & Effects (Finland). At UiS, the project is a collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences and NETTOP , which is UiS’s department for development of digital teaching aids and solutions for online education. 360ViSi is funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Europe has an increasing need for healthcare workers, partly as a result of an aging population with a need for long-term care. Education of healthcare workers, and especially nurses, involves a great deal of practical training. This creates challenges when it comes to access to training facilities, costs and quality in education. The project aims to develop an innovative learning methodology where 360-video and interactivity are combined to create engaging simulation training in a reasonable and simple way. The method will give teachers increased competence in the production of digital tools, as well as increase and make available more digital learning tools across national borders.
One of the aspects the 360ViSi project set out to explore, was the use of 360° video in the perspective of companies that develop services, products and technology specifically related to learning. The media industry has invested time and money in testing 360° video in broadcast and classic storytelling, without great success. However, the project partners believe that there is a potential for use of 360° video in education. Thus, the project aims at:
- developing an innovative learning methodology for utilising 360° video technology and hence stimulate the flow and exchange of knowledge between higher education and enterprises, and:
- initiating new business opportunities of companies that develop services, products and technologies specifically related to learning.
This is also in line with Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliances’ aim to strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity and at foster innovation in higher education, business and the broader socio-economic environment. This aim is shared by the SAFETY project.
The 360 ViSi project builds on available knowledge from successful as well as unsuccessful media concepts by 360° video and related media technologies, like virtual, augmented, mixed and extended realities, applied in simulators, games and other learning, media and entertainment products.
The aim is to explore how cutting-edge features of 360° interactive video technology may be utilized pedagogically, in digital tools for learning.
In the project several cases have been developed by the project partners. An example is the “Ward around” case developed by UiS. “Ward around” is an interactive training environment for nursing students who are preparing for clinical practice. The goal is to give them tools to take an active role and “speak up” in surgical ward rounds. In the development of the case the following off the shelf equipment and tools were used:
- GoPro Fusion 360 camera with ipad
- Sony FS5 Videocamera with 2 lavalier microphones
- Smartphone
- 3DVista software
Here are some of the other results developed in the project:
- Detailed description of simulation training methodology
- User guide on basic production of 360° video
- Digital 360° video tools for production of self-contained Reusable Learning Objects (RLO)
- User guide on procedures for using the digitals tools
- User guide on publishing RLOs produced using digital tools
Please visit https://360visi.eu/ for more information about the project.
Authors: Thor Ole Gulsrud, Camilla Normand, Une Stømer, Nina Vatland, and Peter Dieckmann, University of Stavanger
