Technology in teaching

3D learning spaces

The 3D cinema features a 6-metre screen and seating for up to 133 students. It uses Active 3D for a vibrant, immersive display which helps students more easily see the depth and shape when reviewing molecular structures and anatomy. It’s also a superb display for conventional presentations and events.

Virtual patients

When conducting OSCEs in clinical training, one of the major challenges to overcome is to provide a standardised experience for every student. Virtual Patients are certainly not a substitute for an interaction with a real (or ‘simulated’) patient, they can provide a large group of students with a consistent interaction in a completely safe environment, doing so at the convenience of the academic timetable or on the student's own devices.

Each animated patient is designed, scripted and developed by our own academics and software developers to suit the specific needs of an aspect of the course. Due to the nature of the computer-generated characters, changes to protocols or NICE guidance can be implemented quickly and seamlessly into existing scenarios. Learn more about the Virtual Patients developed at Keele here : Virtual patients

Augmented reality and other apps

Often inspired by or concepted as part of Research projects, the School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering has developed several native apps used in teaching on the Pharmacy Undergraduate course.

Pharmacard and Pharma Compound were both developed to explore ways to communicate the structures of complex molecules using Augmented Reality. The molecules are rendered above corresponding cards illustrating their chemical structures. In Pharma Compound, when certain cards are moved close to each other, the chemicals interact to produce a compound.

Epidermis AR was an augmented reality app developed for a PhD student studying skin absorption and was used as an interactive educational tool to show the structure of human skin as though a projection from the surface of the skin itself.

KARE was originally developed to support a PhD research project into Interprofessional Education, as a combination augmented reality / conventional native app where students would collaborate in the treatment of a patient over several days! A different KARE app is also used as a Clinical Priorities class; students have access to tablets with the app installed

and capable of projecting six patients in augmented reality. KARE has undergone a great deal of development and you can learn more about it here: KARE and other apps.