International+Interprofessional

 media type="custom" key="5598483" align="center" COMBINING FUN AND INTERPROFESIONAL LEARNING IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT Penny Neuendorf Canberra Institute of Technology

Developing ‘virtual world’ based training that provides an authentic learning experience, while also being engaging and exciting is a challenge. Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) has found a way to incorporate role play and interprofessional learning scenarios into a virtual world environment, in a manner that has been well received by learners.

CIT has constructed a virtual work place environment that allows Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Pathologist and their allied health workers to meet and discuss client’s needs. The scenario role plays allow students and health professionals to establish a community of practice in a safe and nonthreatening environment.

This presentation reports on the findings of the trial phase of the CIT virtual world project, //Virtual Worlds in Health Education//. The funding for this project was from the //Targeting Skills Needs// in Regions (TSNR) initiative, funded by the [|//Council of Australian Governments//] (COAG).

CIT has collaborated with Charles Darwin University, GippsTAFE and ACT Health to develop and evaluate ‘in-world’ scenario-based role plays that engage a wide variety of learners.

The research focused on three different learning groups: Indigenous students (Community services and Health areas), Community Services students and Allied Health Assistant students. The aims were to design, develop and validate a framework for building scenarios in virtual worlds, for use in blended learning approaches to teaching communication skills. Scenarios were tailored for each group based on advice from industry experts.

Preliminary results indicate that learners enjoyed the activities and that 80% of participants would recommend using virtual worlds to learn and practice communication skills.