XR in Healthcare Education and Clinical Practice (Coursera)

The course does this by considering Extended Reality from a number of perspectives. First of all, you will be looking at the hardware and software considerations, after which you will look at education structures and frameworks and how Extended Reality is applied within this context appropriately. The final two weeks demonstrate how XR has been applied in real clinical practice, and how best you can make use of the technology through understanding of the impact of interdisciplinary expertise in the field.
Overall, this course will help you to advance your use of Extended Reality, whatever your background, in clinical training and technologically-enhanced healthcare education contexts. You also have the optional pathway of developing a business case alongside your other learnings. The business case can be the first step to promoting your XR idea or project to your different stakeholders.

What you'll learn

• Differentiate the types of Extended Reality (XR) and identify devices applicable to various use cases.
• Understand the application of XR to medical education using evidenced based pedagogy and principles of inclusivity, diversity, and accessibility
• Understand the application of Extended Reality to clinical practice in healthcare through identification of suitable opportunities and design
• Identify important expertise required to permit successful progression and application of Extended Reality in medical education and clinical practice

Syllabus

Getting Started with Extended Reality (XR)
Module 1
This week you will explore the fundamentals of Extended Reality and simulation. The important distinctions between Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality will be highlighted. By the end of the week, you will be better placed to consider various XR devices based on specifications and capabilities and how these will potentially support your use of the technology within healthcare.

XR Design for Healthcare Education
Module 2
Using Extended Reality to enhance learning experience can be achieved by exploring educational considerations and the impact of XR on information retention, cognitive load, inclusion, diversity and accessibility. You may not have formal training in education, however, what is important is to recognise your strengths and limitations. By studying this week’s materials, you will identify the importance of including expert educationalists in your team. This knowledge will help build your business case. Important questions to ask are: What is the problem you are trying to solve or improve? Who are your users and what are their needs? How does technology enhance their learning experience?

XR Design for Clinical Practice
Module 3
This week you will explore how Extended Reality can be used in clinical practice. Focus on the lessons learnt by the experts as they discuss various challenges and successes of using XR. From these lessons identify how you will shape your use of XR and potentially integrate these ideas into your business case.

Planning the Application of XR
Module 4
With your new understanding of Extended Reality in healthcare, it is important to explore the real world translation of this innovation. A business case helps provide rationale for implementing a project or new programme effectively. It is a strong approach to justifying application of Extended Reality to medical education or clinical practice. This week focuses on practical concepts and developmental steps. Expert contributors will contribute different 'lessons learnt' from their XR experience and will give succinct descriptions of the tools/software and phases used in the process of building a XR development. This last week of the course ends with a non-assessed business case exercise and leads to the final graded quiz.