Creating a new “reality” for medical education: the Nexus Reality Lab for virtual reality

Background: The Technology Team at the Ruth Lilly Medical Library, Indiana University (IU), first started exploring virtual reality (VR) in 2016. In 2017, we began offering weekly sessions dubbed VRidays (“VR Fridays”) to give students an opportunity to experience the technology. We also purchased a portable VR setup that allowed us to demonstrate VR at our regional campuses. Description: To lower the entry barrier to VR, the Technology Team collaborated with the IU Advanced Visualization Lab to establish a reality lab in our collaborative learning space. The lab opened in the fall of 2018 and consists of four high-end VR stations that are accessible to students at any time, but they can also make an appointment for a more guided experience. Information and instructions are available on a LibGuide. Conclusion: We are currently collecting data on the number of unique users and evaluating application usage. We are working on a feedback mechanism and looking to develop collaborative partnerships across the university

Teaching First-year Medical Students Where to Go First: Connecting Information Needs to e-resources

The purpose of this project was to introduce first-year medical students to electronic resources that are best suited for different types of background questions. Specific questions from a case study were presented, and the students generalized them into a ‘‘type’’ of question. They then identified the best e-resources for that type of question. This is their first introduction to the lifelong learning competency in the Indiana University School of Medicine competency-based curriculum