Published paper presented at Ascilite2015: Using the occupational medicine simulation developed as a research project in collaboration with the University of Otago, this slideshow highlights both the elements essential to the creation of an authentic context for learning in a virtual environment and those virtual aspects that might provide a supportive learning environment for distance learners.

1. Occupational Medicine Simulation
A collaborative virtual environment research project between
the University of Otago and F/Xual Education Services

2. Simulation Overview
• Cement manufacturing process in the
United Arab Emirates
• OpenSimulator
• Workers’ health outcome assessments
Student Cohort
• Occupational medicine practitioners
• Distance learners
• Limited contact time

3. The Research Indicates:
That immersive virtual environments
• support situated learning;
• provide an authenticity of learning experience;
• are highly experiential learning spaces;
• enable an enhanced sense of community;
• support an improved student performance

4. Giving Meaning to the Learning Space
An amalgamation of the relationship between
• the environment;
• one’s self;
• others

5. Fidelity of the Environment
“the perception of space, size and distance; atmospheric factors such as dust
and noise; each adding to the immersive quality of the environment and
supporting a sense of being there.”
Griffiths, A. (2015). Occupational Medicine Simulation Project. In T. Reiners, B.R. von Konsky, D. Gibson, V. Chang, L.
Irving, & K. Clarke (Eds.), Globally connected, digitally enabled. Proceedings ascilite 2015 in Perth (pp. CP:103-CP:107).

6. Engagement
“the physical reality of the learning situation is of less importance than the
characteristics of the task design and the engagement of students in the
learning environment.”
Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C. and Oliver, R. (2007). Immersive learning technologies: Realism and
online authentic learning. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 19 (1), 80-99.

7. Students/Occupational Environment:
Visually engaging with the physical objects in the occupational environment

8. Students/Occupational Data:
Analytically engaging with the occupational data gathered

9. Students/Facilitator:
Encouraging engagement through enquiry and discovery

10. Embodiment, Presence
Through the use of avatars, “users do not simply roam through the space as
‘mind’, but find themselves grounded in the practice of the body, and thus in
the world” (Taylor, 2002; 42).
Childs, M. (2010) Learners’ Experience of Presence in Virtual Worlds. Ph.D thesis, University of Warwick

11. Self-Identity
Goffman (1956, p. 17) talks on the performer’s belief in the part they are
playing; how they can be “sincerely convinced that the impression of reality he
stages is the real reality” (sic).
Goffman. E. (1956) The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin.

12. “When appropriate technologies can be selected as required and used as
cognitive tools to solve complex problems, the responsibility for learning moves
back to the learner, rather than the designer of the virtual environment.”
Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C. and Oliver, R. (2007). Immersive learning technologies: Realism and
online authentic learning. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 19 (1), 80-99.
F/Xual Education Services
Director: Aaron Griffiths