Enhancing Healthcare Education through Hybrid Intelligence: Integrating a Metacognitive Agent in Virtual Reality

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) offers new opportunities for healthcare education, particularly in fostering metacognitive and self-regulatory learning essential for interprofessional collaboration. Traditional VR-based medical training primarily emphasizes procedural skills, often neglecting socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL). This study explores how MAI, a Metacognitive AI designed to support SSRL, can enhance immersive VR (IVR) healthcare simulations by identifying and responding to key learning moments through multimodal data.

Project information

Project duration

-

Funded by

Other Finnish

Project funder

University of Oulu
Hybrid Intelligence: Human-AI Co-evolution and Learning in Multi-realities (HI)

Funding amount

20 000 EUR

Project coordinator

University of Oulu

Unit and faculty

Learning and Learning Processes
Faculty of Education and Psychology

Contact information

Project leader

Project description

Building on prior research in VR based professional learning, this project collaborates with the AugmentedCare team to refine MAI’s detection of cognitive, metacognitive, emotional, and motivational processes in IVR training for immigrant nurses. Using data already collected from 30 participants, MAI’s intervention strategies will be optimized first by focusing on speech based indicators, followed by incorporating physiological signals and motion tracking. A key partnership with Dr. Constantino Álvarez Casado, whose proposal on multimodal contactless sensing to enhance physiological and cognitive awareness, will further improve MAI’s real-time intervention mechanisms.

Project results

This study advances Hybrid Intelligence by refining AI-driven learning support and multimodal analytics, extending human cognitive capabilities in digital environments. The findings aim to improve teamwork, decision-making, and patient care through adaptive AI-driven learning. This interdisciplinary effort aligns with ethical research standards and enhances the effectiveness of VR-based education in high-stakes healthcare settings.