Skip to main content

The Effects of Virtual Reality Learning Environments on Improving the Retention, Comprehension, and Motivation of Medical School Students

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies (IHIET 2019)

Abstract

As Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have become affordable, portable, and realistic, the use of VR for education is becoming a reality. However, while VR environments are novel and interesting, this project studies if learning medical concepts in a VR environment truly improves the retention, comprehension, and motivation of medical school students. This paper presents the key results of a literature review of the current corpus of studies on these topics. The review revealed a modest number of peer-reviewed studies that assessed the retention, comprehension, and motivation of adult learners using VR in medical education. However, these studies presented several insights summarized in this paper. Additional research needs to be done on this topic to prove the efficacy and validity of this new medium for medical training and instruction. This paper also presents avenues for future research and describes a study that the researchers plan to conduct following this literature review.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Cline, E.: Ready Player One. Crown Publishers, New York (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Wartman, S.A., Combs, C.D.: Reimagining medical education in the age of AI. AMA J. Ethics 21(2), E146-152 (2019). https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/reimagining-medical-education-age-ai/2019-02

  3. Kaphingst, K.A., Persky, S., McCall, C., Lachance, C., Loewenstein, J., Beall, A.C., Blascovich, J.: Testing the effects of educational strategies on comprehension of a genomic concept using virtual reality technology. Patient Educ. Couns. 77(2), 224–230 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2009.03.029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Thompson-Butel, A.G., Shiner, C.T., McGhee, J., Bailey, B.J., Bou-Haidar, P., McCorriston, M., Faux, S.G.: The role of personalized virtual reality in education for patients post stroke-a qualitative case series. J. Stroke Cerebrovac. Dis. 28(2), 450–457 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2018.10.018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Palanica, A., Docktor, M.J., Lee, A., Fossat, Y.: Using mobile virtual reality to enhance medical comprehension and satisfaction in patients and their families. Perspect. Med. Educ. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-0504-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Parkhomenko, E., O’Leary, M., Safiullah, S., Walia, S., Owyong, M., Lin, C., James, R., Okhunov, Z., Patel, R.M., Kaler, K.S., Landman, J., Clayman, R.: Pilot assessment of immersive virtual reality renal models as an educational and preoperative planning tool for percutaneous nephrolithotomy. J. Endourol. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1089/end.2018.0626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Vertemati, M., Cassin, S., Rizzetto, F., Vanzulli, A., Elli, M., Sampogna, G., Gallieni, M.: A virtual reality environment to visualize three-dimensional patient-specific models by a mobile head-mounted display. Surg. Innov. (2019) https://doi.org/10.1177/1553350618822860

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Smith, S.J., Farra, S.L., Ulrich, D.L., Hodgson, E., Nicely, S., Mickle, A.: Effectiveness of two varying levels of virtual reality simulation. Nurs. Educ. Perspect. 39(6), E10-E15 (2018). https://journals.lww.com/neponline/Abstract/2018/11000/Effectiveness_of_Two_Varying_Levels_of_Virtual.21.aspx

  9. Krokos, E., Plaisant, C., Varshney, A.: Virtual memory palaces: immersion aids recall. Virtual Reality (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-018-0346-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Ekstrand, C., Jamal, A., Nguyen, R., Kudryk, A., Mann, J., Mendez, I.: Immersive and interactive virtual reality to improve learning and retention of neuroanatomy in medical students: a randomized controlled study. CMAJ Open. 6(1), E103–E109 (2018). https://doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20170110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Stepan, K., Zeiger, J., Hanchuk, S., Del Signore, A., Shrivastava, R., Govindaraj, S., Iloreta, A.: Immersive virtual reality as a teaching tool for neuroanatomy. Int. Forum Allergy Rhinol. 7(10), 1006–1013 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1002/alr.21986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Huang, H.-M., Liaw, S.-S., Lai, C.-M.: Exploring learner acceptance of the use of virtual reality in medical education: a case study of desktop and projection-based display systems. Interact. Learn. Environ. 24(1), 3–19 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2013.817436

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Neil Gomes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Gomes, N., Lou, Y., Patwardhan, V., Moyer, T., Vavala, V., Barros, C. (2020). The Effects of Virtual Reality Learning Environments on Improving the Retention, Comprehension, and Motivation of Medical School Students. In: Ahram, T., Taiar, R., Colson, S., Choplin, A. (eds) Human Interaction and Emerging Technologies. IHIET 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_45

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25629-6_45

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-25628-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-25629-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics