Enhancing Tertiary Healthcare Education through 3D MUVE-Based Simulations - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 352

The Virtual Hallucinations project strives to
educate both members of the general public and
healthcare professionals about schizophrenia by
presenting them with simulated experiences of
commonly-suffered hallucinations (Au, 2004).
The simulation includes coverage of both au-
dible hallucinations, which are the most common
variety, as well as the less-commonly suffered
visual hallucinations, in an attempt to illustrate
and demonstrate how those with hallucination
disorders experience the world (Au, 2004). The
power behind such a simulation lies in its ability
to train mental health professionals in a more
realistic way to understand how these illnesses
affect the patient without having to put a medical
student straight into a psychiatric ward to study
and observe real patients. Another key advantage
of this simulation is to allow the general public
to experience flashes of simulated hallucinogenic
episodes first hand in order to better understand
and raise awareness about the plight of mentally-
ill people.
In contrast to the Heart Murmur application
described in the previous subsection that mimics
a real-world workplace scenario, primarily with
the aim of maximizing flexibility and accessibil-
ity and decreasing levels of cost and risk, Virtual
Hallucinations is an example of how 3D MUVE-
based simulations can be used to afford learners
the ability to undergo experiences that would be
impossible for them to have in the real world.

Game” in a recreation of the Augustinian Abbey
at Brno where Mendel carried out much of his
work about the laws of inheritance.

Surgery Techniques

The popularity and growth of Second Life has
given rise to the development and use of powerful
and informative surgical simulations that enable
medical students to perform surgery in a controlled,
safe, and extremely cost-effective environment
free of the dangers of life-critical errors and legal
ramifications. One such example is by Dr. James
Kinross and colleagues from the Imperial College
of London who are seen as pioneers in online
medical simulations. Kinross applauds Second
Life for its low-cost infrastructure and growing
expert community, which in turn has lead to fast
and informed simulation development.
In July 2007, Kinross and colleagues created
a virtual hospital called Second Health (n. d.) and
an accompanying series of short “machinima”
documentary films to describe what health care of
the future could look like ( Second Health movies ,
2009). Second Health is an ongoing development
and is located in the SciLands , a specialised region
of Second Life for Science, Technology and Edu-
cational applications. Inside Second Health is the
highly developed London Hospital, which contains
highly detailed, informative and interactive simu-
lated wards and procedures such as: acute care,
day procedures, endoscopy, operating theatres,
and a futuristic view of polyclinics. Kinross and
colleagues have seen a valuable future in harness-
ing virtual worlds, and as a result have created a
specialized Medical Media and Design Laboratory
to ensure further research and development into
online and interactive human health education.

Genetics Lab/Museum

Created by Mary Anne Clark at Texas Wesleyan
University, USA, the Gene Pool (n. d.; Clark, n.
d.) features an interactive SL-based genetics lab/
museum and virtual learning space in which visi-
tors can engage in various activities designed to
assist them in developing a detailed understanding
about DNA and human chromosomes. They can,
for example, conduct simulated lab experiments
in the virtual environment and explore a giant
3D eukaryotic cell, as well as playing a “Mating

Speech Therapy Treatment,
Training, and Support

Academics and students at the University of Bal-
larat in Australia have developed a Virtual Stut-