Investigating the Effects of a 3D Virtual Reality Simulation in Undergraduate Medical Education  

Though research has suggested the effectiveness of simulation-based learning, the adoption of simulation in medical education is still limited, and its effects on motivation is rarely studied. The aim of this study was to investigate how simulation-based learning impacted student learning as well as students’ subjective task values, a key component of motivation, when used in a medical morphology-related course of Human Parasitology. 

Study 1

A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 113 undergraduate medical students in China who took a Human Parasitology course. Students were assigned to one of the two conditions: Simulation Group, where they played the online simulation, and Lecture Group, where they received an online lecture. All participants’ learning was measured immediately after the intervention and three weeks later to determine knowledge retention. The Learning Task Value Questionnaire was used to measure students’ subjective task values both prior to and after the interventions. Data were analyzed using one-way ANCOVA and MANOVAs. The results suggested that students in the Simulation Group gained significantly more knowledge than those in the Lecture Group. Moreover, students in the Simulation Group retained their knowledge significantly better than those in the Lecture Group. In the Simulation Group, student subjective task values significantly increased after the intervention , while in the Lecture Group, there was a significant decrease in student subjective task values. The study showed that simulation-based learning leads to superior learning and enhanced subjective task values. The findings shed light on the design of simulation-based learning in medical education and have important practical implications on medical education. 

Gao, F. & Zhang, R. (2023). Exploring the use of 3D virtual reality simulation in medical education. Paper to be presented at the 2023 annual conference of American Educational Research Association.

Gao, F., Qiu, J., Chen, L., Li, L., Ji, M. & Zhang, R. (2023). Effects of virtual reality simulation on medical students’ learning and motivation in human parasitology instruction: A quasi-experimental study. BMC Medical Education. 23, 630. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04589-3