The rise of the digital revolution has disrupted entire industries and job markets, leading individuals to either upgrade or transfer their skills in order to continue within their designated fields or transition to new workplace contexts. Employers expect their employees to apply their knowledge to real-world settings, analyze and solve problems, connect choices to actions, and innovate and create. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated changes to the educational landscape by forcing online and remote contexts; physical distancing and other preventive measures have necessitated a shift towards increasing the use of disruptive digital technologies- extended reality (e.g., virtual and augmented reality), gaming, and additive manufacturing-in simulation delivery. Yet Canada’s economic and demographic data suggests that many new graduates struggle to transition from school to working life. The confluence of these factors has led to a need for both individuals and higher education institutions to upgrade and adapt to new digital techniques and modalities. As these needs grow, simulation-based education (SBE) techniques and technologies-already an integral part of training for some professions, including nursing, medicine, and various other health professions-are increasingly being used in digital contexts. In this editorial, we provide our perspective of the socio-technological movement associated with health-professions education (HPE) within the SBE context and examine the application and implementation of micro-credentialing within this field. We also discuss the various levels of expertise that learners may acquire. From this vantage point, we address how SBE can complement the assessment of competencies that learners must demonstrate to attain micro-credentials and explore micro-credentialing’s advantages for, and use in, HPE.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how education is delivered worldwide. The resultant rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms, has extensively impacted universities and other higher education organizations around the world. One approach to support this change in education delivery is the use of virtual simulation approaches. Our team at SimXSpace has piloted a virtual workshop using Zoom, an online video-conferencing platform, and virtual simulated persons (SPs) to support communication and interpersonal skills among learners. The main objective of the pilot virtual workshop was to develop and implement the SP methodology remotely via the Zoom platform (Zoom Video Communications, San Jose, California) and to evaluate its effectiveness as an immersive environment for simulation. The virtual workshop involved four instructors who intend to implement virtual SPs within their courses, two workshop facilitators, and two SPs. The workshop was conducted synchronously using Zoom features. The workshop followed a predefined structure and was completed as planned. Outcomes suggest that remote simulation delivery using virtual SPs and delivered online via Zoom is feasible and provides an effective environment in which to conduct SP methodology to teach communication and interpersonal skills. The findings suggest that remote simulation and virtual SPs can support experiential education and provide an effective and engaging learning environment. The virtual workshop was successful and laid a foundation for future online training programs for the use of SP methodology. Moreover, it formed an effective outline for subsequent iterations of this virtual training workshop and prompted discussion of plans for future workshops with various programs across a pan-university context.

The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has shifted traditional educational approaches in health professions education (HPE) from in-person to remote learning. Although pedagogical strategies have been developed and implemented rapidly to support cognitive and affective domains of learning in HPE, less progress has occurred in psychomotor skills acquisition. Psychomotor skills, referred to as technical skills training, are underpinned by educational theories and conceptual frameworks. Considering the widening gap in learning domains, this editorial provides an overview and recommendations for developing and implementing remote training supported by educational theories, such as deliberate practice, and conceptual frameworks in technical skills acquisition in HPE. We begin by discussing the unique curricular needs for remote psychomotor skills in medical teaching-learning contexts and subsequently present a theory-driven and evidence-based model for remote psychomotor skills acquisition.

Serious games, that is, games whose primary purpose is education and training, are gaining widespread popularity in higher education contexts and have been associated with increased learner memory retention, engagement, and motivation even among learners with special needs. Despite these benefits, serious games have fixed scenarios that cannot be easily modified, leading to predictable and dull experiences that can reduce user engagement. Therefore, there is a demand for tools that allow educators to create new modifications and customize serious game scenarios, and avoid the fixed-scenario problem and a one-size-fits-all approach. Here, we present and detail our novel virtual serious games authoring platform called Moirai, which uses a no-code approach to allow educators who may have limited (or no) prior programming experience to use a diagram-based interface to author and customize serious games focused on decision and communication skills development. We describe two case studies, each of which involved creating serious games for nursing education (one for mental health education and the other for internationally educated nurses). The usability of both games was qualitatively evaluated using the system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire and achieved above-average usability scores.

Experiential education and student engagement are a main source of student attraction and retention in post secondary milieus. To remain innovative, it is imperative that universities look beyond the internet and traditional multimedia mediums and incorporate novel ways and cutting-edge technologies that can drastically change the way students and educators experience learning. The application of technology as an approach to experiential education is becoming more popular and has extensively impacted universities and other higher education organizations around the world. One approach to support this change in education delivery is to use immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR). Our team has conducted a pilot study that focuses on embedding VR as a medium to teach empathy within higher education milieus. We began the study by conducting a pilot faculty development workshop to provide an understanding of VR and ways it can be embedded as a pedagogical approach to support curriculum design. Five faculty members from a local university were recruited to participate. Outcomes suggest that embedding VR into the curriculum is a feasible approach that provides an engaging learning environment that is effective for teaching an array of interpersonal skills. The workshop laid the foundation for future faculty training programs guiding the use of VR, prompting a dialog regarding plans for future workshops across a pan-university context.

Introduction Few approaches articulate a systematic way to address confusing, missing, or underdeveloped simulation design features prior to implementing into coursework. To address this gap, we tested a novel, systematic refinement strategy to improve the design elements of two simulations. Methods Forty eligible participants (Year 3 undergraduate nursing students) evaluated two simulation scenarios (each followed by a debriefing session) through a novel and systematic refinement strategy across five iterations. Each simulation was evaluated using the validated Simulation Design Survey (SDS). Ratings were analyzed using descriptive data. Students also responded to an open-ended question in order to provide qualitative feedback regarding how to improve its features, i.e., scenario design and debriefing components. Written comments by students were analyzed using the principles of qualitative content analysis. Results Descriptive statistics revealed a gradual increase in the mean scores of the SDS over each of the simulation refinement periods. For the first simulation, the SDS mean score reached a high on Day 5 of 4.86 (standard deviation (SD) = 0.14) in contrast to a score of 3.45 (SD = 0.17) on Day 1. For the second simulation, the SDS mean score was 4.75 (SD = 0.16) on Day 5, which represented a mean score increase of 1.01 from the score on Day 1. Conclusions This novel refinement strategy improved the overall design elements of each of the simulations. The potential use of the SDS and open-ended feedback, guided by a refinement approach, merits further investigation.