Virtual Environment for the Assistance in Learning of Odontology Gestures – EVAGO

Methods, tools and models will be designed for: (a) replaying the teacher captured gestures through a 3D avatar in virtual environment (EV) and (b), evaluate the learner captured gestures according to the observation needs. The evolution of Virteasy will be studied from the standardization point of view, going beyond the proof of concepts, and from the acceptance of new use practices integrating Virteasy and being generalizable. To achieve these goals, Virteasy will be considered from the (re)design perspective of pedagogical sequences to study its appropriation by the main actors (i.e. students and teachers).

The 18-month works linked to EVAGO project allowed: the publication of 4 papers in national and international conferences, a presentation in the ADEE annual conference (Association for Dental Education in Europe), the integration of Virteasy as a complementary and efficient resource in the second and third years of study of the Odontology UFR of Nantes, showing its potentialities on several aspects (discrimination of student level, prediction of student performances on conventional simulators, reinforcement of practices, complementarity in the current formation process), creating a first version of a pedagogical engineering folder making some use case recommendations in terms of pedagogical sequences, highlighting Virteasy from the industrial point of view by its integration in practical cases studied from the scientific research point of view. The overall works and results were discussed in a general assembly in May 2023.

In the next year, we plan to: (1) finalize the current works (e.g. experimentation on hardware package, impact of immersive VR, etc.) (2), make a focus group with teachers on the integration of Virteasy in their pedagogical sequences (3), capture appropriate and non-appropriate teacher gestures for their analysis (4), create virtual pedagogical resources with these motions (5), integrate them with the replay of the haptic arm in Virteasy (6), make the experimental validation of descriptors and postures, the operationalisation of methods evaluating the work posture and the reference point and their integration in Virteasy (7), make an experimentation on the student performances with a better use of VR periods and (8), launch a longitudinal study for four semesters with questionnaires, interviews and watching sessions to model the interactions between teachers, students and the institution at some specific steps of use of Virteasy (before/after familiarization, few/a lot of sessions, etc.)

- Octave Nadile Bandiaky, Valériane Loison, Fabrice Pirolli, Raphaëlle Crétin-Pirolli, Ludovic Hamon, Assem Soueidan, Laurent Le Guehennec, Serena Lopez. Haptic simulator as a new pedagogical tool in dental education: Preliminary data on student perception (EVAGO Project). Communication orale acceptée pour le congrès de l’ADEE 2023, Liverpool.
- Valériane Loison, Fabrice Pirolli, Raphaëlle Cretin-Pirolli, Serena Lopez-Cazaux. Introduction des nouveaux environnements virtuels de simulation dans la formation – Quelques modèles théoriques d’intégration et exemple d’une méthodologie de recherche dans le cadre du projet EVAGO. La numérisation des sociétés, Société Française des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication, Jun 2023, Bordeaux, France. ?hal-04142052?
- Valériane Loison, Fabrice Pirolli, Raphaëlle Cretin-Pirolli, Serena Lopez-Cazaux. Environnement virtuel de simulation dans la formation en Odontologie-Présentation d’un programme de recherche et des résultats d’une étude préliminaire. Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain, Jun 2023, Brest, France. ?hal-04142101?
- Valériane Loison. Intégration d’un environnement virtuel de simulation en contexte d’enseignement-apprentissage-Croisement des méthodes d’enquête sur un terrain d’étude complexe, 17e journée des jeunes chercheurs en SIC, laboratoire Geriico, Lille, 26 mai 2023

The EVAGO project extends the Virteasy Virtual Environment (VE) dedicated to the Odontoloy training, with models and tools to automatically assess the whole technical gesture i.e. the motion of body parts involved in the manipulation of tools and treated objects, as well as the expected features of these objects. From the analysis of teacher practices and the observations needs, this project will compare spatial and temporal similarities between their demonstrated motions and those of the students, and will cluster these demonstrations according to a semi-supervised approach to define the acceptability values of the technical gestures. The EVAGO aims to improve the Virteasy instrumentation in a continuous analysis process of the instrumented practices, responding to the autonomy, skill and self-regulation needs, as well as the automatic detection of the features of the acceptable gestures.