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73. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)
Joint Meeting mit der Griechischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC) e. V.

29.05. - 01.06.2022, Köln

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Virtual Reality based teaching – a paradigm shift in education?

Virtual Reality basierte Lehre – ein Paradigmenwechsel in der studentischen Ausbildung?

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  • presenting/speaker Anna Junga - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Institute of Education and Student Affairs, Münster, Deutschland; Stiftungsklinikum PROSELIS, Department of Urology, Recklinghausen, Deutschland
  • Pascal Kockwelp - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Department of Computer Science, Münster, Deutschland
  • Dimitar Valkov - Saarland University, Department of Computer Science, Saarbrücken, Deutschland; Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Department of Computer Science, Münster, Deutschland
  • Bernhard Marschall - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Institute of Education and Student Affairs, Münster, Deutschland
  • Sophia Hartwig - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Münster, Deutschland
  • Walter Stummer - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Münster, Deutschland
  • Benjamin Risse - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Department of Computer Science, Münster, Deutschland
  • Markus Holling - Universitätsklinikum Münster, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Münster, Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 73. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Griechischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Köln, 29.05.-01.06.2022. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2022. DocP222

doi: 10.3205/22dgnc538, urn:nbn:de:0183-22dgnc5389

Published: May 25, 2022

© 2022 Junga et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objective: Student teaching is an essential part of the training of future physicians and an integral component in the recruitment of young talent. The aim of the course was to expose students to brain death diagnostics in order to lower the inhibition threshold for non-neurosurgical junior staff in their future life. Therefore, we conducted the first virtual reality-based (VR) course on brain death diagnosis.

Methods: The course on brain death testing for all fourth-year students was conducted on a phantom only until last year. The theoretical background was provided in a lecture. In this pilot project (Departments of Neurosurgery and Computer Science & Medical School), the cohort was divided into two parts: One half performed the brain death examination on a phantom as usual, and the other half performed it on a virtual patient (Figure 1 [Fig. 1] & Figure 2 [Fig. 2]) with VR hardware after an appropriate introduction. In addition, both groups were asked for the assessment result and to rate multiple subcategories using a questionnaire (1-100; disagree-agree) before and after the course.

Results: The course was conducted with 109 students. Sixty-one percent of the participants reported never using VR glasses, 37.1% did so once or rarely, and 1.9% of the students reported using VR glasses regularly. The mean global-rating score for the VR group was 79.4, while the phantom group was significantly lower, with a mean score of 67.3. There were no gender differences in the ratings. Each student was asked which course type they would prefer in the future if they could decide. 75.4% would prefer the VR based course form here.

Conclusion: We were able to show that VR-based teaching can be a modern and excellent complement to the common way of teaching. Despite a lack of VR experience, Generation Y students were able to quickly adapt to the new learning environment. VR-based instruction is an effective, focused, and economical alternative to traditional methods.