Blended and Remote teaching Activities supported by Virtual rEality for Radiation sciences

<< Background >>The needs of the present market, as well as those envisioned for the coming future, of the nuclear sector for qualified nuclear engineers, technologists, radiation protection officers (RPO) and radiation protection experts (RPE) are enormous. Just think, e.g., of the number of nuclear reactors that are or will soon be shutdown in Europe. Large decommissioning projects and waste management plans demand interdisciplinary teams of workers to be successful while keeping financial, technological, management and human aspects into consideration. Many current workers will have to be retrained on the work floor. Recently the corona pandemic enhanced and forced the digitalization of education. The learning activities need to be more advanced and diverse. Therefore, the ones we propose - online collaborative learning, virtual reality, serious gaming, remote teaching, online organisation of group activities and evaluations, training digital skills for all educators (lifelong learning) - meet this education need for advanced and diverse learning activities. Students and teachers are also encouraged to collaborate outside their own institution to share knowledge.<< Objectives >>The goal of the strategic partnership was to increase the knowledge sharing in radiation protection and safe use of radiation sources across the European countries. To achieve this, we have developed different blended learning activities using innovative educational approaches stimulating collaboration and offering a resilience to different kinds of circumstances using E- and M-learning combined with a safe offering of practices. However, special attention was needed for the development of the soft skills using digital education not only from the point of view of competences but also for the wellbeing of the students. During the project, we have developed blended and remote teaching approaches in the form of educational collaborative games that are embedded in a strong learning environment.<< Implementation >>The first meeting was the kick off meeting held at Hasselt (June 2022). During this meeting, we specified the tasks of each partner and fixed the three themes related to the foreseen results. Each theme was linked to online or face to face teaching activities where the students of partner institutions were included. The report of each result explains not only the result itself but also the teaching process and innovation settled to obtain it. A Quality assurance plan and a Dissemination plan were also written. Before going deeper into the pedagogic digital production, it was necessary to provide the staff member with more practical information about practices related to digital, virtual training tools. A first meeting was organised by UHasselt in June 2022, bringing together teaching staff members who were going to coach the students in establishing collaboration oriented digital tools. The results were written in a report (cfr. C1 staff training on teams). The second phase was dedicated to the writing of the VR and Escape game scenarios by different international students groups. This phase included an initial testing of their applicability by students. The third phase was dedicated to testing the tools outside the partnership.<< Results >>Three results were produced during the project:-A VR software dedicated to the use of radionuclides in Nuclear medicine. The scenario describes a floor contamination during the administration of a radiopharmaceutical to a patient. The player must clean the contamination without spreading the radioactive product. The software needs the use of a specific headset. (Cfr R2)-A virtual escape room (built on Genially) challenging the player on radioactivity (from natural or artificial origin) in the environment. The escape room was designed by students and staff members of partner institutions and addressed to high school teachers and pupils. It can be freely reached using a QR code. (cfr R3)-A collaborative online platform (COIL) allows people (mainly teachers and students) to share their strengths, expertise, practical infrastructures and overcome intercultural differences by collaboration and interaction. (Cfr R4)