At the beginning of the month, the Learning Technologies Exhibition, the world’s leading conference dedicated to technology-supported learning in the workplace, was held in London with the theme of ‘Authenticity in Learning’.
With over 30 conference sessions and more than 90 speakers and facilitators, the Learning Technologies Exhibition created the chance for over 1000 learning and development professionals to come together and share their exciting stories and ideas.
Virtual Shifts
One of the speakers at the Learning Technologies Exhibition was Newcross Healthcare’s Head of Learning Innovation, Mark Story; his presentation detailed how our Virtual Shifts were developed to be an authentic learning experience. He also spoke about how the main objective in its development was to create something that we were so proud of we wanted to frame it. This was brought to life with the closing shot showing how he has a framed picture of the characters in his own home.
The main points at the exhibition highlighted in Mark’s Learning Technologies presentation were:
- Our learning must reflect our people-centred sector
- To be authentic, learning must be immersive, relatable, and emotionally engaging rather than a passive, intellectual test of memory
- We achieved an authentic learning experience. Through creating character-led, narrative driven, real life scenarios, the learner is immersed into a story
- Virtual Shifts’ stories and characters were developed through a process of co-creation with our healthcare staff
- The learning had to address behavioural as well as clinical decision making
- There was a rigorous approach to ensuring the learning was under pinned by sector-specific learning outcomes. Once we had done this, we could have fun in its design
The impact of Virtual Shifts
Mark also spoke about the impact that Virtual Shifts has had, such as:
- 45,000 Virtual Shifts have been completed. This saved the individual 4 hours of watching training DVDs as they would have done previously
- There’s been a 10% reduction in complaints since the first Virtual Shift launch in September 2018
- Learner feedback often includes words like ‘love’ and ‘fun’ to describe their experience
- Nagware and nudge reminders (which are sent from the Virtual Shift characters) often see staff responding to the characters
One of Mark’s highlights from the Learning Technologies Exhibition presentation was Major Bingley, one of the Virtual Shift Characters. His animated image and voiceover introduced some of the other characters. Additionally, one of the characters, Fiona, brought Mark to tears due to the authenticity of her story. This shows just how real the experience is for those interacting with the characters.
To find out more the learning opportunities we offer our healthcare community, take a look at our Newcross World page.
