Virtual reality (VR) use for health professions education has been rapidly growing during the past few years. This educational technology offers great potential benefits, including better learner engagement, ability to provide learner-centred adaptive content, with a strong focus on experiential learning.  Unfortunately, there is still a lack of evidence-based best practices in VR-education, and poor implementation strategies can lead to limited educational outcomes and unnecessary costs. Proper design of VR-enhanced educational interventions based on proven educational frameworks with appropriate assessment strategies is essential to take full advantage of this technology. This interactive workshop aims to introduce the principles of backward design for VR-enhanced learning activities to improve educational outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs associated with deficient implementation, through the careful integration of educational objectives and assessment methods. Selecting the right tools for the job is essential in the successful utilization of any educational technology, and gaining the necessary knowledge of how to optimize VR in health professions education is critical to establishing a successful program. This workshop has been successfully conducted in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and this is the first opportunity to hold it in North America.  

Objectives - The educational goals for this workshop are as follows:

• Understanding the full potential of VR as an educational tool
• Identifying different types of VR tools commonly used in health professions education
• Understanding the backwards design approach to developing educational activities with VR
• Analyzing a VR-enhanced educational activity through a case study
• Identifying common VR implementation errors and their impact on educational outcomes
• Identifying strategies to improve educational transfer using VR
• Designing a sample educational intervention using the backward design approach