Exploration Intent

With the cost and maintenance of cadavers on the ride (~$3000/year) and our wet lab capabilities at an eight person capacity, our ability to provide students with the robust experience of gross anatomy has been limited. The primary purpose of this grant was to obtain technology that would enable us to augment the current anatomy and physiology lab (which seats 24) so that more students could benefit from enhanced instruction.
Other schools have been using VR to provide educational experiences that bring the content to life, such as touring the deep waters of the ocean. Feedback regarding supplementing coursework with passive virtual encounters has been favorable with increases in student engagement and retention. These experiences are independent, with a single user experiencing the app, and everyone else watching. To date, no study has explored the use of VR in a group dynamic, not as a supplement, but as the predominant curriculum. Students would be able to rotate through dynamic prelates in VR, the actual cadaver lab, and traditional anatomy inquiry for a well rounded curriculum. As VR will enable manipulation at the cellular level, the cadaver at a macroscopic scale, and traditional labs will provide detail in connecting form and function.

This grant seeks to answer the following objectives: 1) What is the optimum number for student learning with VR, and 2) How does student performance compare to the traditional lab experience?

As we are piloting the use of the quest in the Anatomy & Physiology sequence, the principle app that will be utilized is Human Anatomy VR, which is an Oculus Rift app that is already compatible and available in Quest for $20 per license. The BMCC biology department will cover this cost, the price of sanitary liners, and course development by faculty to create inquiry based labs that align with the Human Anatomy VR content.

There are other quest specific apps that overlap content in the general biology sequence, which are listed below.

Their presence makes the VR hardware accessible to other instructors, and a greater pool of students. Oculus has gone on record saying they are focused on making the Quest the premiere VR headset. Initiatives are already underway to make more Go and Rift content accessible with the quest and this number is expected to increase annually. In the meantime, the highly rated Human Anatomy VR will be suffice to in serving the Anatomy and Physiology students, on multiple campuses (Pendleton & Hermiston at this time) and fulfill the objectives of this grant.

Reflection and Fulfillment Report 2021

December 2019, I was awarded an emergent technology grant to obtain 5 Oculus Quest systems and bring virtual reality to the BMCC classroom. The primary goal for this technology was to leverage some of the virtual body programs to offset the cost and logistical issues surrounding our cadaver lab. Though I do not teach Anatomy and Physiology, as I was the foremost expert on virtual reality, I submitted the proposal and planned to create a short inquiry based lab to pilot in the Spring of 2020.

Since receiving the grant, there have been several notable obstacles to implementing this new technology in the classroom.  Once the COVID pandemic hit in March of 2020 classes moved online and became a barrier to provide students a safe setting in which students would have access to the technology.  My premade assignments will likely serve as models for other instructors to create their own assignments.  But during the campus closure, we have had no face to face interactions in which to demonstrate this technology.  However, the biggest challenge has been that the virtual reality apps that were documented as compatible and fast listed for migration to Quest from the Rift and GO systems have not occurred yet.  We are still awaiting the Version 9 software update.  This means that anticipated programs such as Body VR, Organon Anatomy, Human Anatomy VR, and Genetics Lab, are still being cross platform converted. While this is presently disappointing and affects the application of Virtual Reality in the Anatomy and Physiology sequence at this time, we remain hopeful that this software update will occur before the start of Fall term.  In any case, it does present an opportunity for further grants to develop appropriate learning tools that fill this niche.  In the meantime, BMCC is excited to use the VR technology in the biology sequences described above, as the Quest is the most robust tool for implementation and continues to showcase the largest variety of educational apps that can be used in the classroom as standalone or integrated exercises for student engagement.

Questions and comments for follow up can be directed to [email protected]