Experience the future, embrace the change: The potential of IX to create and leverage teachable moments and improve lifestyle behaviors in osteoarthritis patients
A healthy lifestyle is crucial for many patients, but medical advice alone rarely leads to lasting behavioural change. Tilburg University is investigating whether immersive experiences can create and reinforce so-called teachable moments in osteoarthritis patients: moments in which a patient becomes acutely aware of the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle. Through IX, patients experience the long-term effects of their behaviour in an emotionally compelling way, sparking the motivation to live more healthily.
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Ethiek verbeelden: bruggen slaan tussen analoge en digitale immersieve ervaringen
This project explores how analogue and digital forms of immersive experiences can reinforce each other within an educational context. The central research question is how human interaction, empathy and ethics can be preserved when traditional role-play scenarios are enhanced with digital components. The project aims to develop an integrated model that makes optimal use of both the power of face-to-face role-play and the possibilities of digital immersion. The previously developed IX 'De Lifetimer' serves as a test case for an analogue immersive experience in which participants use physical aids, such as name tags and simple props. This setting emphasises closeness, spontaneity and emotional engagement. The workings and impact of these low-tech elements are systematically examined in terms of immersion, imaginative power and emotional response. In parallel, the project explores how similar effects can be achieved digitally, for example through visual effects or immersive audio. These digital approaches are tested and evaluated through proof-of-concepts. Ultimately, the project will develop a hybrid bridging model that meaningfully connects the analogue and digital IX worlds and encourages exchange between the two domains. The intended outcomes include: a theoretical framework for hybrid immersive learning experiences, a series of proof-of-concepts demonstrating practical applicability, and a growing network of analogue and digital creators. In doing so, the project makes a concrete contribution to the development of responsible, future-proof immersive experiences in educational settings.
Enhancing Authentic Learning in Primary Care: Real-Time Immersive Experiences in Family Medicine Clerkships
Medical education also has high expectations of IX applications, especially given the staff shortages in healthcare. Students need IX to deliver a suitable and effective learning experience. That's why Maastricht University, together with two GP practices, is researching how IX can let students experience real patient consultations digitally and live.
Responsible Immersive Support for Firefighter Retreat under Unreliable Spatial and Communication Information
Firefighters retreating from a building operate under extreme time pressure, poor visibility and high mental strain - precisely when positioning and communication can become unreliable. The University of Twente is researching how immersive systems can make this uncertainty visible and understandable, so that digital cues support decision-making without creating false confidence or adding to the user's mental load.
Staging collective VR experiences
Scalable — and therefore affordable — IX onboarding and social IX, as part of an optimal user experience, remain key challenges for the IX community. How can museums onboard visitors more effectively so that more of them can experience a functional IX? And how can they create a shared VR experience in the process? That's what the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences will be researching, together with a museum and an IX developer.
Gedeelde inzichten in interactionele en impactvolle XR
XR learning environments - such as VR simulations and interactive training scenarios - are increasingly used in health care, communication, safety and public services. They help professionals practise difficult conversations, analyse complex situations and experiment safely with new behaviour. Despite this growth, it is not yet sufficiently clear which didactic and design choices make these environments effective, inclusive and responsible. The project Gedeelde inzichten in interactionele en impactvolle XR investigates how immersive learning environments can be designed to support learning, reflection and meaningful professional practice. The focus is not on the technology, but on the experience of users: how they navigate, interpret, process feedback and gain insight into digital decision-making processes. Together with XR creators and partners from the health care and public sectors, we analyse existing applications - such as VR-Gedeelde Smart and the BEP environments - and gather experiences from designers, health care professionals, communication advisers and environmental analysts. We build on existing, long-used XR learning environments and a proven collaboration, so that we do not need to develop new technology and can devote resources fully to research, analysis and validation. By linking their practical knowledge to insights from conversation analysis, user experience design, adoption theories and smart education, we develop and validate a set of generic design and didactic principles for effective and responsible XR learning environments. These principles address, among other things, clarity, interaction, reflection, accessibility and value-conscious design. The results yield scalable knowledge for the broad XR sector: from design studios and public organisations to educators working with immersive technology. In doing so, the project contributes to a more responsible and inclusive use of XR in society and offers concrete tools for digital decision-making and complex communication.
The Locus Of Fear 7 (TLOF_7)
One example is the project The Locus of Fear, in which UMC Amsterdam collaborates with the University of Twente and 2 IX creators from the cultural and creative industries. In this practice-based artistic research project, they explore how IX can help us better understand and measure experiences of fear.