Do high-fidelity, augmented reality simulations improve students’ engagement with simulation sessions?

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Simulation is used extensively in medical education, where it allows students to train safely and develop both clinical and non-clinical skills. However, many scenarios are low-fidelity and the lack of realism can psychologically remove students from those scenarios. This lack of engagement can be detrimental to student learning.We produced a scenario utilising numerous sensory augmentations, including olfactory, auditory and visual, with the aim of increasing the realism of the scenario. This scenario ran twice, with and without the augmented components, and students' engagement with the scenarios was measured using a questionnaire.Due to the small number of students taking part in the study (six), a full statistical analysis of the results was deemed inappropriate. The students in the augmented scenario reported that they felt the simulation felt more realistic. However, in some measures of engagement the non-augmented scenario received higher scores. Many augmented-reality features, especially the video-handover, received positive feedback and were viewed as successful in improving realism and engagement.We believe that augmenting simulation scenarios has the potential to improve engagement and retention of knowledge and skills. Further work is required, involving greater numbers of students and more robust methods of measuring engagement and knowledge retention.