UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

Community-Based Research

Task # 8 -

2. Research Problem Statement

Defining Variables & Population
3. Secondary Research
Questions/Objectives, Purpose
Significance
4. Research Hypothesis, Specific
Research Questions
5. Research Design
6. Sampling & Sample Size
7. Data Collection Method
8. Draft of Questionnaire

Submitted by:
Group # 14
Ermish Imtiaz Muhammad Imtiaz Ahmed (U21102729)
Fatma Fawzi Abdelmoktader Gamalelden (U21104563)
Hawra Mohanad M. Salem Al Ansari (R) (U21103167)
Mariam Araby Mohamed Elsayed Saad(U21102292)
Mohammed Nomaan Khaja Basheeruddin (U21104137)
Shady Gamal Mohamed Kotb (U21102178)
Sondos Osama Saeed Elkhalifa (B) (U21103867)

------- ------

An assignment submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of

Community-Based Research course -Year 2

Submitted to:

Dr. Amal Hussein

TASK 2
Research Problem Statement: To Evaluate Acceptance of Medical Students and
Faculty Towards Integrating Virtual Reality in the Medical Curricula.

Identify Population: Medical Students and Faculty

Identify Variables: Acceptance

Define population: Medical student is defined as a student enrolled in College of

Medicine. Medical faculty is defined as faculty who are part of Colleges of Medicine.

Theoretical and Operational Definition of the Study Variable:

Theoretical Definition Operational Definition**

Acceptance is measured using an
Acceptance refers to willingness of online questionnaire which tests their
people to use a new product or willingness using a Likert scale and
service or to believe a new idea ask about related advantages and
disadvantages of VR.

TASK 3
Secondary Research Questions:

1. To assess the level of knowledge about VR among our population

2. To identify the factors that influence level of acceptance of implementation of VR
in medical curricula
3. To identify which aspect of the medical curricula will implementation of VR be
most useful as perceived by students and faculty
4. To identify advantages and disadvantages of implementing VR in education as
perceived by medical students and faculty
5. To assess willingness of students to finance VR experiences in their tuition.

Purpose:
Assessing the acceptance of medical students towards the application of VR in medical
education since artificial intelligence is transforming every walk of life hence evaluating
the attitudes about it can influence the willingness of students to embrace new technologies
and teaching methods. This Research can inform educators, curriculum developers, and
institutions about the potential challenges and opportunities associated with incorporating
it into medical training. Furthermore, we can understand how well-prepared students are
to engage with VR tools in their medical education.
The research also aims to address any gaps in the existing literature regarding medical
students' and faculty’s’ acceptance towards VR in medical education while also looking at
factors that influence this.

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Significance:
Virtual reality (VR) as defined by Lowood (2023) is a computerized simulation of a
completely immersive, three-dimensional world that can be experienced and interacted
with in real time using specialized electrical equipment such as a virtual reality headset,
gloves, or body suits. The virtual environment could be a replica of reality or entirely
made up. The interactive devices used have built-in sensors that send and receive signals
giving the user an illusion of telepresence (“being there”) in real-time, as well as
allowing the user to feel the sensation of touch, enabling them to tamper with the
environment. There are essentially two types of VR; immersive where the user is able to
tamper with the environment and non-immersive where they can only see it.

We cannot possibly turn a blind eye to how technology has accelerated rapidly in the
past few years, which is mainly due to its futuristic allure. Not just that but we can also
say that this comes in line after the COVID-19 pandemic which has essentially
revolutionized the way people live, work, and learn (Al Ansi & Al-Ansi, 2020). Not only
can VR inspire and fuel people’s creativity, it can spark their imagination which will
ultimately lead them to explore new academic interests, hobbies, and artistic
endeavours.

VR has demonstrated its value in several fields, including gaming, education,

healthcare, real estate, and many others (Kamińska et al., 2019). As part of this study,
we are mostly interested however to explore its application in education, especially
among medical students, as recent years have seen an increase in the usage of Virtual
Reality (VR) in education offering students with a variety of ground-breaking
possibilities (Tan et al., 2022).

VR can be used for many educational purposes from creating immersive environments
that are engaging, memorable and impactful for students, all the way to help students
build important interpersonal skills such as collaboration, empathy and social skills
which are all crucial in creating a robust individual ready for the unknown future! VR
has been described as a learning aid for the 21st century, with a study showing that
students retain more information and are better able to apply what they learn after
engaging in VR exercises (Alizadehsalehi et al., 2021). This is because integrating VR
in education introduces students to digital experiences that cannot be replicated through
conventional teaching methods (Phakamach et al., 2022), allowing the learners to fully
connect with challenging material outside of lectures and textbooks (Sun et al., 2023).
Hence, we can say that VR is one of the tools that is going to revolutionize the way we
act, learn and perform, as it can be our guide to reach limits humanity has never thought
about before.

Virtual reality (VR) in medical education offers several benefits. It provides a lifelike
and immersive learning environment (Zhang et al., 2022), allowing students to practice
without real patient risks. VR enables detailed exploration of 3D anatomy and practice
of complex surgical procedures (Hattab et al., 2021). It also supports ongoing education
and international collaborations among medical educators and researchers, enhancing
the field of medical knowledge globally. Thus, the integration of virtual reality into

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medical education improves the quality of training, enhances patient safety, and
prepares future healthcare professionals to effectively tackle the challenges of modern
medicine.

However, before VR can be effectively utilized in this context, there are a number of
challenges which must be overcome. The most prominent of which is the cost that
comes with this as the software and hardware required are quite costly and need to be
regularly updated and maintained (Nguyen et al., 2019). Another factor could be the
accessibility of the technology as it may not be available for everyone (Biswas et al.,
2021). Furthermore, implementation of VR in education can be overwhelming for some
depending on age and previous experiences with such technologies. However, with
appropriate resources and approaches, using VR in education may be an impressive tool
for educating and engaging students.

To conclude, the application of virtual reality (VR) in medical education holds immense
potential for revolutionizing the way healthcare professionals are trained and prepared
for real-world patient care scenarios. By evaluating the readiness and openness of
medical students to VR technology, this study can shed light on the potential future
adoption of VR in medical education, making it highly relevant to educators and
institutions considering VR integration. However, in the context of the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), there exists a noticeable gap in the utilization and integration of VR
technology within medical education. Moreover, in terms of the articles that are
published about this subject, they have dived into the different applications that VR
could be used in and its impact on students' performances, such as what was seen in the
comparative study that was conducted in Mexico (López Chávez et al., 2020). As far as
our knowledge, a similar study has been carried out among pharmacy students in Wuhan
University of science and technology in China (Yang et al., 2023), and another in
medical students in Germany (Mergen et al., 2023), however we haven’t found any
literature testing the perception, readiness, and attitude among medical students in the
UAE. Therefore, our study’s uniqueness lies in its potential of exploring the perception
of medical students and faculty towards VR. Understanding their attitudes is crucial
because it can significantly influence the successful implementation of VR in medical
curricula.

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 REFERENCES

Al Ansi, A. M., & Al-Ansi, A. (2020). Future of education post covid-19 pandemic: reviewing
changes in learning environments and latest trends. Solid State Technology, 63(6), 201584-
201600.

Al-Ansi, A. M., Jaboob, M., Garad, A., & Al-Ansi, A. M. (2023, January 1). Analyzing augmented
reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) recent development in education. Social Sciences &
Humanities Open; Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100532

Alizadehsalehi, S., Hadavi, A., & Huang, J. C. (2021). Assessment of AEC students’ performance
using BIM-into-VR. Applied Sciences, 11(7), 3225.

Biswas, P., Orero, P., Swaminathan, M., Krishnaswamy, K., & Robinson, P. (2021, May). Adaptive
accessible AR/VR systems. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-7).

Hattab, G., Hatzipanayioti, A., Klimova, A. et al. Investigating the utility of VR for spatial
understanding in surgical planning: evaluation of head-mounted to desktop display. Sci Rep
11, 13440 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92536-x

Kamińska, D., Sapiński, T., Wiak, S., Tikk, T., Haamer, R. E., Avots, E., ... & Anbarjafari, G.
(2019). Virtual reality and its applications in education: Survey. Information, 10(10), 318.

López Chávez, O., Rodríguez, L. F., & Gutierrez-Garcia, J. O. (2020, September). A comparative
case study of 2D, 3D and immersive-virtual-reality applications for healthcare education.
International Journal of Medical Informatics, 141, 104226.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104226

Lowood, H. E. (2023, September 27). virtual reality. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/virtual-reality

Mergen, M., Meyerheim, M., & Graf, N. (2023). Towards Integrating Virtual Reality into Medical
Curricula: A Single Center Student Survey. Education Sciences, 13(5), 477. MDPI AG.
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050477

Mikhail, M., Mithani, K., & Ibrahim, G. M. (2019). Presurgical and intraoperative augmented
reality in neuro-oncologic surgery: clinical experiences and limitations. World
neurosurgery, 128, 268-276

N., & N. (2023, October 1). What is Virtual Reality? Types and Applications. Intellipaat Blog.
https://intellipaat.com/blog/virtual-
reality/#:~:text=The%20most%20basic%20type%20of,utilized%20in%20instruction%20an
d%20training.

Nguyen, V. T., & Dang, T. (2017, October). Setting up virtual reality and augmented reality
learning environment in unity. In 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and
Augmented Reality (ISMAR-Adjunct) (pp. 315-320). IEEE.

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Phakamach, P., Senarith, P., & Wachirawongpaisarn, S. (2022). The metaverse in education: the
future of immersive teaching & learning. RICE Journal of Creative Entrepreneurship and
Management, 3(2), 75-88.

Sun, J. C. Y., Ye, S. L., Yu, S. J., & Chiu, T. K. (2023). Effects of Wearable Hybrid AR/VR
Learning Material on High School Students’ Situational Interest, Engagement, and Learning
Performance: the Case of a Physics Laboratory Learning Environment. Journal of Science
Education and Technology, 32(1), 1-12

Tan, Y., Xu, W., Li, S., & Chen, K. (2022, September 25). Augmented and Virtual Reality
(AR/VR) for Education and Training in the AEC Industry: A Systematic Review of
Research and Applications. Buildings; Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.
https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12101529

Yang, X., Mei, J., Xiao, S., Xi, J., Cao, X., & Zheng, Y. (2023, January). Pharmacy student’s
perceptions, behaviours and attitudes toward virtual reality simulation. Saudi
Pharmaceutical Journal, 31(1), 14–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsps.2022.11.002

Zhang, Y., Liang, B., Chen, B., Torrens, P. M., Atashzar, S. F., Lin, D., & Sun, Q. (2022). Force-
aware interface via electromyography for natural VR/AR interaction. ACM Transactions on
Graphics (TOG), 41(6), 1-18.

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TASK 4
Research Hypothesis :
None, since it is a univariate study

Research Questions:
1. What is the level of knowledge of medical students and faculty about virtual
reality?
2. What do the medical students and faculty know about the different applications of
virtual reality?
3. What is the relationship between gender and knowledge about VR?
4. What are the resources of knowledge about virtual reality among the medical
students and faculty?
5. What is the perception of medical students and faculty regarding virtual reality?
6. What is the relationship between knowledge and attitude/ readiness?
7. What is the relationship between year of study and knowledge about VR?
8. What is the relationship between gender and attitude/ readiness?
9. What percentage of participants have had previous experience with VR?
10. What is the relationship between previous experience with VR and attitude/
readiness?
11. What are the benefits of integrating of VR in medical curricula as perceived by
medical students and faculty?
12. What are the disadvantages of integrating of VR in medical curricula as perceived
by medical students and faculty?
13. What is proportion of University of Sharjah medical students and faculty who are
ready to have VR in their studies ?
14. What is the relationship between year of study and attitude/ readiness?
15. Which aspect of medical education as perceived by medical students can take the
maximum advantage of VR integration?
16. Which aspect of medical education as perceived by medical faculty can take the
maximum advantage of VR integration?
17. Is there a difference in attitudes towards VR integration among the different
medical colleges?
18. Is investing in VR worth it (time and money, training of staff…. Etc ) according
to the medical students and faculty?

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TASK 5
Research Design
Observational, Cross-sectional (Prevalence) Study

Justification
We aim to assess acceptance among medical students and faculty towards virtual reality
and its integration in medical education. Conducting this study involves gathering data
from a large sample and analyzing the disparities between different levels of acceptance;
therefore, we are not intervening with the subject’s perception or behavior but rather
assessing and collecting information that’s already there. Moreover, we are generating a
hypothesis to test on the sample, and this aligns with the observational research design
criteria. With this study we will gather data that is quantitative in nature which in the
future will lay down the foundation for further qualitative research to gain a deeper
understanding of the topic.

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TASK 6
Target Population
Medical students and Faculty in United Arab Emirates

Accessible Population
Medical students and Faculty in University of Sharjah present at the time of data
collection.

Sample Frame
We will not have a sample frame since we do not have access to a complete list of
students and faculty enrolled in College of Medicine, University of Sharjah.

Inclusion Criteria
▪ Medical students and faculty of the University of Sharjah enrolled during the
period of data collection

Exclusion Criteria
▪ Students enrolled in Foundation Year

Sampling Method
Non-probability sampling method, in specific volunteering sampling method

Justification
Non-probability since we do not have a complete list of students and faculty who are
enrolled at the university. Our data collection will be done using two separate online
questionnaires, one for the faculty and another for the students.

Sample Size Calculation

We will be using the following formula to calculate our sample size since the main aim
of our study is to see the level of acceptance among medical student and faculty about
the integration of VR as part of the curriculum.
Formula used to calculate sample size: 1540  p  (1−p)
Since the confounding factors and conditions in which our data will be collected do not
match any of the studies that we have found related to our topic so we will keep our
value of p as 0.5.
1540  0.5  (1−0.5)  385
So according to the formula our sample size should be 385, but we would like to round
it up to about 400 to reduce the margin of error and increase the level of confidence of
our study. Also, since we are expecting to detect a small effect size, so we need a bigger
sample size.
Final population size  400 (students + faculty)

Based on the information obtained from the administration of the medical college of the
University of Sharjah, there are 52 faculty members and 1008 students enrolled in the
college from year 1 to year 5.

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Therefore, for every faculty member there is around 20 students in the college (1008:52
= 20:1).
While calculating our sample size we found out that we would need around 380
students to participate in our questionnaire. Using the same proportionality of students
to faculty, aiming to mimic the target population distribution, we would need around 20
faculty to participate in the questionnaire (52x380/1008 = 19).

TASK 7

Data Collection Method

Self-administered questionnaire

Justification
Our questionnaire will have a total of 3 sections
Section 1 – Demographics
Section 2 – Knowledge about VR
Section 3 – Acceptance towards integration of VR into the curricula
We have adopted part of our questionnaire from a similar study and modified it to meet
the objectives of study. We did a literature review about Virtual Reality and its
applications in order to develop the knowledge section of our questionnaire. The
questionnaire will be sent out to the students and faculty on their university accounts.

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 TASK 8 - Questionnaire (1st Draft)
1. Are you a student or faculty?
Student
Faculty

SECTION 1 – DEMOGRAPHICS

[IF THEY SELECT “STUDENTS” THE FOLLOWING WILL APPEAR ]

2. What university do you study in?

(if they choose anything other than UOS – end of survey )
University of Sharjah
Others:____

3. What college do you study in

(if they choose anything other than medicine – end of the survey)
College of Medicine
Others:____

4. What is your level of study

Foundation Year (if they choose this - end of survey)
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5

5. Specify your gender

Female
Male

6. Please select your age group

Below 18
18 - 20
21 - 23
24 - 26
Above 26
[IF THEY SELECT “FACULTY” THE FOLLOWING WILL APPEAR ]

2. What university do you teach in?

(if they choose anything other than UOS – end of survey )
University of Sharjah
Others:____

3. What college do you teach in

(if they choose anything other than medicine – end of the survey)
College of Medicine
Others:____

4. What is your academic rank?

Medical tutor
Lecturer
Assistant Professor
Associate Professor
Professor
Others:____

5. What do you teach?

Anatomy/ Histology
Physiology
Pathology
Immunology
Pharmacology
Biochemistry
Microbiology
Psychology
Clinical Skills
Community Health
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Pediatrics
Medicine
Surgery
Family Medicine
Psychiatry
Others:____
 6. Specify your gender
Female
Male

7. To which age group do you belong?

Below 30
30 - 40
40 - 50
50 - 60
Above 60

SECTION 2 – KNOWLEDGE ABOUT VR (SAME FOR ALL)

8. From the statements below rate your level of knowledge about VR

Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
I am familiar with the term Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is a sub-field of Artificial
Intelligence
There are two types of Virtual Reality – Immersive
and Non-immersive
Virtual Reality is a computerized simulation of a
completely immersive, three-dimensional world
that can be experienced and interacted with.
Virtual reality gives the user an illusion of
telepresence (“being there”) in real-time
Specialized equipment such as a virtual reality
headset, gloves, or body suits are used in order to
immerse into the artificially generated environment
9. Where did you get most of your knowledge about Virtual reality (multiple allowed)
Social Media
High school curriculum
Medical college curriculum
Non-medical courses/ Elective
Conferences/ Workshops
Friends and Family
I do not know anything about VR
Others:__

10. Select from the list below, fields where you know Virtual Reality is being applied
Education (i.e. complete anatomy, DXR)
Gaming
Medicine & Healthcare (i.e. surgical training)
Engineering
Real Estate & Architecture (i.e. virtual tours)
Others:___

11. What according to you are the perceived advantages of integrating VR into medical
education
Realistic simulation with an interactive first-person perspective
Safe learning environment
Hands-on practice without patient risk
Allows to perform complex surgical procedures without patient risk
Repeatable scenarios
Allows to explore rare cases that you wouldn’t find very frequently
It will be more practical so better retaining of information
VR can assess performance and give instant feedback
I am not sure
No advantages
Others:___
12. What according to you are the perceived disadvantages of integrating VR into
medical education
Technical challenges
Associated health problems (i.e. eye strain, cybersickness, etc.)
The learning curve when adopting VR technology
Unrealistic experience
The setup and maintenance will be quite costly
VR cannot fully replicate the complexity and variability of real-world
clinical situations
Limited range of available scenarios and simulations
I am not sure
No disadvantages
Others:___

13. Have you had any previous experience with Virtual Reality?
Yes
No

14. Where have you used Virtual Reality?

(if yes to previous questions - allow multiple responses)
Education (i.e. complete anatomy, DXR)
Gaming
Medicine & Healthcare (i.e. surgical training)
Engineering
Real Estate & Architecture (i.e. virtual tours)
Others:____
SECTION 3 – ACCEPTANCE OF THE APPLICATION OF VR INTO MEDICAL
CURRICULA

Medical Applications in Virtual Reality

15. How confident (skilled) do you feel in using computers and other technologies (i.e.,
smartphones, tablets, etc) for the purpose of education?

Very Confident Neither/ Unconfident Very

Confident Nor Unconfident

16. How difficult is it for you to familiarize yourself with a new device, a new program,
or a new function of a device?

Very easy Easy Neither/ Nor Difficult Very Difficult

17. What are your views on the integration of Virtual Reality into the medical curricula

Strongly Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Strongly

Favor Favor Against Against
 (If they say “Strongly Favor”/ “Somewhat Favor”/ “Neural” - the following questions will
appear) [IF THEY SELECT “STUDENTS” THE FOLLOWING WILL APPEAR ]

18. Rate the following statements

Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree
a. Virtual reality would improve student
performance in medical school
b. I can imagine examining virtual reality patients
c. I can imagine communicating with a virtual
reality patient
d. I would join a course that trains for using virtual
reality in medical education
e. I am willing to pay the costs to cover virtual
reality as part of my tuition fees

19. Which aspect of medical education according to you will benefit more from Virtual
Reality?
Pre-clinical Years (Year 1, 2, 3)
Clinical Years (Year 4, 5)
Both

20. Which subject(s) according to you in the pre-clinical years have the most potential for
application of Virtual Reality [this question will appear if they select “Pre-clinical
Years” or “Both” for the previous question] - (allow multiple)
Anatomy
Physiology
Pathology
Microbiology
Radiology
Psychology
Histology
Biochemistry
Genetics
Others:___
 21. Which subject according to you in the clinical years has the most potential for
application of Virtual Reality [this question will appear if they select “Clinical Years”
or “Both” for the previous question] - (allow multiple)
Surgery
Emergency medicine
General medicine
Psychology
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Pediatrics
Orthopedics
Cardiology
Neurology
Dermatology
ENT
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Other:___

(If they say “Strongly Favor”/ “Somewhat Favor”/ “Neutral” - the following questions will
appear) [IF THEY SELECT “FACULTY” THE FOLLOWING WILL APPEAR ]

18. Rate the following statements

Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly

Agree Disagree

a. VR would improve student performance

b. I can imagine teaching students using VR
c. I would join a course that trains how to teach
using VR
d. I think the implementation of VR will prepare
the students well for their careers
e. Virtual reality will increase the workload on the
faculty
19. Which aspect of medical education according to you will benefit more from Virtual
reality?
Pre-clinical Years (Year 1, 2, 3)
Clinical Years (Year 4, 5)
Both

20. Which subject(s) according to you in the pre-clinical years have the most potential for
application of Virtual Reality [this question will appear if they select “Pre-clinical
Years” or “Both” for the previous question] - (allow multiple)
Anatomy
Physiology
Pathology
Microbiology
Radiology
Psychology
Histology
Biochemistry
Genetics
Others:___

21. Which subject according to you in the clinical years has the most potential for
application of Virtual Reality [this question will appear if they select “Clinical Years”
or “Both” for the previous question] - (allow multiple)
Surgery
Emergency medicine
General medicine
Psychology
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Pediatrics
Orthopedics
Cardiology
Neurology
Dermatology
ENT
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Other:___
(If they say “Strongly Against”/ “Somewhat Against” - end of the questionnaire)

Knowledge Refrences

Al-Ansi, A. M., Jaboob, M., Garad, A., & Al-Ansi, A. (2023). Analyzing augmented reality
(AR) and virtual reality (VR) recent development in education. Social Sciences & Humanities
Open, 8(1), 100532.

Lowood, H. E. (2023, September 27). virtual reality. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/technology/virtual-reality

Marougkas, A., Troussas, C., Krouska, A., & Sgouropoulou, C. (2023). Virtual reality in
education: a review of learning theories, approaches and methodologies for the last decade.
Electronics, 12(13), 2832.

Mergen, M., Meyerheim, M., & Graf, N. (2023). Towards Integrating Virtual Reality into
Medical Curricula: A Single Center Student Survey. Education Sciences, 13(5), 477.