About
The University of Portsmouth (UoP), established as a School of Science and Art in 1870, serves around 29,000 students across five faculties.
In 2023, UoP’s School of Health and Care Professions embarked on the Bodyswaps & Meta Research Programme to investigate its potential as a platform for their students.
Goals
- Explore the use of VR and immersive learning as a platform for teaching
- Offer supplementary, immersive learning experiences that students could access between their usual lectures
- Provide a reflective learning experience that resonates with students at different stages of their education
Deployment
Booking system
Students booked time slots to use the VR headsets, making the system accessible and manageable.Boots on the ground
In a bid to boost student engagement and ensure a strong number of sign ups the team spoke in lectures to encourage students to enrol through QR codes there and then rather than relying on email outreach alone.Results
- 83% of students would recommend Bodyswaps to their peers
- 85% of students identified areas to improve on their skills
- 83% of students increased their understanding
Advice
- Email may not be the best channel to connect with students. Going to their lectures to introduce any new initiative and providing them an easy way to sign up and try it out is very helpful.
- If your learners are time-poor, create an easily-accessible summary of all your modules, including duration and a description of the learnings they can expect from the module.
One student, who’d never done VR before, was so happy with the immediacy of the learnings from Bodyswaps that they felt it was probably one of the most valuable things they’d done as a first year.
Pauline McKeever
Associate Head Global Engagement and Educational Partnerships
Future Plans
Lucy and Pauline will be engaging a cohort of Master’s of Nursing students with Bodyswaps, giving them an arena in which to develop their interpersonal skills.This is particularly key for the international students on this course, providing them with a safe space to engage with potential cultural expectations that may come from working within healthcare.