Comparison of immersive and non-immersive virtual reality videos as substitute for in-hospital teaching during coronavirus lockdown: a survey with graduate medical students in Germany

ABSTRACT

As a consequence of the continued Covid-19 lockdown in Germany, in-hospital teaching for medical students was impossible. While lectures and other theoretical training were relatively easily converted into online sessions using platforms such as Moodle, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, this was not the case for practical skills and clinical interventions, such as bronchoscopy or colonoscopy. This study describes a workaround that was implemented at the Saarland University Hospital utilizing virtual reality equipment to convey the impressions of shadowing clinical procedures to the students without physical presence. To achieve this, 3D 180° videos of key clinical interventions of various internal medicine specialities were recorded, cut, and censored. The videos were uploaded to the e-learning YouTube channel of our institution and shared with the students via the private share function. The students could choose whether to use a VR-viewer to watch the videos immersively or to watch them without a viewer on a screen non-immersively. At the end of the course after 1 week, the students completed a questionnaire anonymously focusing on learning-success regarding the presented topics, a self-assessment, and an evaluation of the course. A total of 27 students watched the videos with a VR-Viewer and 74 watched non-immersively. Although the VR-viewer group self-assessed their expertise higher, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the learning-success test score. However, students in the VR-viewer group rated the learning atmosphere, comprehensibility, and overall recommendation of the course significantly higher. They also agreed significantly more to the statement, that they gained a better conception of the presented procedures, and that virtual reality might be an appropriate tool for online teaching. Video-assisted teaching facilitates learning and might be a valuable add-on to conventional teaching.

Abbreviations: Covid-19: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; 3D: three-dimensional; 2D: Two-dimensional; VR: virtual reality

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual reality
• VR 180
• Google Cardboard
• Covid-19
• medical education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authors’ contributions

A.J.O. provided the initial idea of the project, assisted in the creation of the videos, cut all videos, analysed the data, and created the manuscript. P.M.L. supervised the development of the project, assisted in the video creation and data analysis and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. L.S.S. assisted in the video cutting and manuscript creation. R.B. was supervisor and advisor to the project, M.B., M.C., E.D., G.D., F.M., K.R., and U.S. helped in the capturing and annotation of the videos. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All participants and patients gave their informed consent for being recorded on video and the students gave their informed consent for participation in the anonymous survey. In the survey no personal data was collected. The Saarland ethical committee confirmed (Ha 276/21) that there are neither ethical nor legal concerns about the study.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2022.2101417

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.