Fife College helps develop new virtual reality app for student assessment

Developed in collaboration with Scottish-based digital solutions company eCom Scotland and the SQA, the assessment created by the college sees students transported into a virtual workshop through the use of a VR headset.

Here they must identify potential health and safety issues in their surrounding environment, and then answer questions regarding the latest regulations.

Different virtual learning environments can be created within the tool, offering transformation of assessments in a wide variety of sectors including care, engineering or the fire service.

The new application was recently on show at the VR/AR Global Summit, one of the largest tech events of its type, where it was exhibited to over 12,000 attendees.

Head of digital learning at Fife College, Sharon Burns, led the college’s work on the project alongside lecturer Lee Priestley, the principal developer.

Sharon said: “We’re incredibly proud of the work that Fife College has put in over the past two years to help develop this new assessment tool. By using virtual reality we can transform the way we measure and assess learning.

“The example we’ve created with eCom focuses on health and safety in a construction industry setting, but this technology could be used across a range of different industries from the care sector to the fire service.”