My PhD Journey

27th February 2020, my PhD journey begins...

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CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION

Received a certificate for completing the Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated (ACSPRI) course the other day.

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Writing up a Qualitative PhD Course

This week I started a 4-day PhD training program called “Writing up a Qualitative PhD Course”. These are night classes, which, at the time of registering for this program was ideal for me since I was working full-time. However, as it turned out, I’m currently not on any work deployments. Nevertheless, I am very much enjoying this course and it's only day 2. Professional Silverman has some radical views, but that good thing! - Looking forward to tonight's class!

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Happy to say that the first study has been accepted for publication by a Q1 journal.

Trevena, L., Paay, J. & McDonald, R. VR interventions aimed to induce empathy: a scoping review. Virtual Reality 28, 80 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-024-00946-9

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The terrible Tasering of 95-year-old Claire Nowland at a care home.

Yesterday, I pitched an article again to the conversation in relation to the widespread media coverage of the terrible Tasering of 95-year-old Claire Nowland.

Claire only weighed 43kg and lived with dementia. Tragic stories like this continue to highlight a lack of understanding about age-related diseases, mental health issues, and disabilities, as well as a lack of empathy in the care/support sector. For example, according to a statement by Dr Kay Patterson in the guardian,

 “People in aged care become very aggressive and it’s a mental illness,” she said on Wednesday. “They’re not responsible sometimes for their behaviour, and I think that we need to revisit whether it’s appropriate to have police responding to those sorts of incidences.” Dr Kay Patterson

Certainly, I myself am not an expert in dealing with age-related diseases and mental health issues, nevertheless, in the case of 95-year-old Claire Nowland, and similar critical situations, it is not difficult to imagine that with better policies, and training, that include inducing empathetic behaviors, professional custodians will be able to make better decisions, and respond accordingly.

Deploying armed police officers, who are not skilled, and or trained, in dealing with age-related diseases, mental health issues, and disabilities, does not seem to be the appropriate response for these types of critical situations.

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A significant change in direction has occurred.

The past week has been an interesting one to say the least. A significant change in direction has occurred, and an important one at that. 

On Wednesday 30th November 2022, I had a zoom meeting with Brendan who is the innovation Specialist / Design Lead at Scope (Aust). I arranged the meeting with him to raise my concerns about the VR app that I tested with a friend and a family member. In both instances, the users struggled to navigate through the system, even after I gave PDFs (guides) prior. As such, both users were unable to interact with the VR avatar and environment in a way that could provide data to assess the VR’s effectiveness to induce empathy. Moreover, I too found the VR experience not very intuitive, which, considering I am an eLearning specialists / coach at Monash University, reinforces that the VR system, in its current state is not ready for Scope Australia to adopt into their DSWs training practices. Especially, if we consider that the target audience are not known to be technically savvy. My concerns were not without merit, as Brendan confirmed similar outcomes with DSWs he tested and agreed that the VR system is not intuitive. The VR app appears to have been randomly introduced into Scope without any significant useability testing, and fact finding.

 On Thursday 1st December 2022, I had a zoom meeting with my two supervisors to discuss this. It was agreed that the lack of usability testing meant that trying to assess the VR’s effectiveness to induce empathy is problematic, especially since end-users are struggling to learn and navigate through the VR experience. As such, we established that the study now needs to focus on usability analysis for DSWs since the VR app has already been adopted to some degree.

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Tested Sophie (VR) with a friend.

On Friday 11th, I conducted another pre-test with a friend. I gave them the user guides provided and then asked them to try out the VR experience. Similar outcomes to the previous pre-tests done using friends and family, it is clear that end-users significantly struggled with the system.

  Firstly, they struggled with navigating, secondly, they struggled with easily knowing why things were going wrong in the VR. For example, are the difficulties in using the program by design, is it a bug, or are they just simply not proficient in using the technology.

  An interesting point / question made by my friend on the Friday, was, “why was it much easier to interact and engage with the pre-set VR games/tasks in Oculus compared to the Sophie VR experience, which was very difficult to use, and not intuitive.

  Another point made by my friend was that VR technology is not easy to use, especially for anyone who is technically savvy. Moreover, they thought an online learning module, that used technology that was less advanced (i.e. less interactive), would be easier and more practical for end-users.

Similar to my previous findings, I believe it might be beneficial to design an online eLearning module that I can ask DSWs to engage with before they come in to the Lab for testing. An external monitor will also be needed so I can observe what participants are experiencing.

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Latest activities

I have been testing the VR software ‘Sophie Social’ with friends and family. On the 24th of July 2022, I tested it with a Friend, and last night (2 Nov 2022) my Mum tried it out too.

The take away, from these two early tests, is that participants are likely to struggle with navigating through the VR environment and using the hand-held controllers, even more so if the participant is not technologically proficient. Moreover, whilst I am not expecting DSW participants to have Arthritis, my Mum does, in her hands, and therefore found the hand-held controllers difficult and uncomfortable to use.

It was interesting observing my Mum apologizing to Sophie (Avatar) numerous times throughout her VR experience, as my Mum struggled just steering through the environment. For example, as the avatar (Sophie) stood there continuingly pointing to a picture in the magazine she was holding, my mum kept apologizing to Sophie (Avatar).

These early tests also highlighted a need for an external review monitor. It was very difficult to guide the users in navigating, and I found myself wanting, and needing, to observe what is occurring in the VR environment. Indeed, having a review monitor for this, will be very useful, especially if the user is struggling to use the technology.  

I will be doing another test on the weekend of November the 12th 2022 with my friend. Prior to this, I aim to have an early and basic instruction guide developed to test out and see if it helps my friend navigate.

 In addition (to this), I emailed a couple of ABC journalists and was informed that Elizabeth Wright is the ABC’s disability affairs correspondent. I subsequently sent Elizabeth an email too just more of an introduction email about me and my research.

I also emailed Dr Sylvia Anne Mackie who is the LAS Research Communication Advisor / Convener COM80001 GC-RESIM, at Swinburne’s Office of Student Engagement.

I heard back from Sylvia this morning, who informed me of the following:

quote,

 “Hi Lee,

 In relation to formatting, Appendix 1 in the Statement of Practice Candidature Handbook gives a guide to Swinburne’s preferred structure and format of the thesis (pages 46-48). It’s in the Research Intranet (log in with your staff ID, not your student number):

 https://www.swinburne.edu.au/media/intranet/research/docs/grad-studies-pdfs/SoP-Candidature-Handbook-November-2018.pdf

 If you’re considering the thesis by publication, you should check through p. 47 in detail and then discuss it with your supervisor.

 Swinburne’s Research Bank has samples of completed theses: access the repository via the link, and browse by publication type.”

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Confirmation of Candidature

On Monday 3rd of October, I received my official email that my Confirmation of Candidature was approved by Swinburne’s Graduate Research panel. This is a key mile-stone towards being rewarded a PhD.

  The research I am doing is also very rewarding, and I believe it could lead to training advancements in the disability support sector. This is particularly important as it continues to be reported in the media that there is an increase demanded for quality trained disability support workers (DSW).

The research team initially wrote a scoping review relating to the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR) as an empathy inducing intervention back in 2021. However, as the research progressed, it was decided that a more advanced scoping review was required that was more internationally inclusive.

The new scoping review is currently being reviewed by all members of the research team. Once this phase is done, we will be going over the feedback in order to make any necessary changes with the objectives of getting the paper published in a peer reviewed journal.  

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50 posts!

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Gradual steps...

This year (2022), I have been pitching articles to the online academic journal, The Conversation. While the editors have responded that my story ideas are interesting, the concepts have not yet been commissioned for inclusion. I believe I have pitched three ideas to date, one to the Science + Technology editor, and two to the Health + Disability Editor.  

Because I am passionate about this journey, and my topic, and the fact that it is critical that advancements in disability support training occurs, I will continue to pitch my ideas.  

Parenthetically, yesterday at 5pm, I collected the VR headset from Swinburne. I am yet to test it, but will aim to do so over the weekend. I will then start trying the equipment out using a volunteer to help me assess ways I can approach my testing and data collecting.

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There is a need for better training and screening practices in the Australian disability support sector.

The recent media reports surrounding the directors of Integrity Care being charged over the death of Adelaide woman Ann Marie Smith highlights a critical issue in the disability community. The frequent media reports surrounding disability abuse, often perpetrated by the very people given the duty of care, calls attention to a need for better training and screening practices in the disability support sector. Greater research is needed to advance DSW training practices, and one important area that is emerging, and policy makers should pay attention to, is research relating to how effective VR training is, as an empathy enhancing intervention.

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New Australian Disability Minister - Bill Shorten

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An important area the New Australian Disability Minister should pay attention to, is research relating to how effective VR training is.

There has been countless people in the disability community feeling that the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has deviated from its initial design. With 2022 seeing a much-needed change in Australian governments, a change from liberal to labor, and the introduction of Bill Shorten as the new Disability Minister, it is hoped, that the NDIS and the disability sector gets back on track. One important area that the new minister should pay attention to, is research relating to how effective VR training is, in particular, research relating to VR as an empathy enhancing tool for training in support services. It is certainly apparent that the literature is revealing promising results.

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Exploring the Effect of Cooperation in Reducing Implicit Racial Bias and Its Relationship With Dispositional Empathy and Political Attitudes

Previous research using immersive virtual reality (VR) has shown that after a short period of embodiment by White people in a Black virtual body, their implicit racial bias against Black people diminishes. Here we tested the effects of some socio-cognitive variables that could contribute to enhancing or reducing the implicit racial bias. The first aim of the study was to assess the beneficial effects of cooperation within a VR scenario, the second aim was to provide preliminary testing of the hypothesis that empathy and political attitudes could contribute to implicit bias about race, while the third aim was to explore the relationship between political attitudes and empathy. We had (Caucasian) participants embodied in a Black virtual body and engaged either in a cooperative (Coop group) or in a non-cooperative (Neutral group) activity with a confederate experimenter embodying another Black avatar. Before and after VR, we measured participants’ implicit racial bias by means of Implicit Association Test (IAT) and their perceived closeness toward the confederate experimenter. Before VR we also assessed participants’ political attitudes and empathy traits. Results revealed that, as compared to the Neutral group, the Coop group showed lower IAT scores after the social interaction. Interestingly, in the Neutral but not the Coop group the perceived closeness toward the confederate experimenter was associated with the initial racial bias: the more the participants reduced their d...

Interesting experiment.

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MMAT

Sill working on the scoping review. I’m using the MIXED METHODS APPRAISAL TOOL (MMAT) VERSION 2018. I’m finding it a very useful tool as it provides criteria descriptions and the Algorithm for selecting the study categories to rate in the MMAT.

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Similar research in Australia

Today I came across an article called Innovation approaches are producing amazing results . Mercy Connect has adopted VR technologies to develop an innovative experience, called "IMERCYVE". IMERCYVE has been designed for Disability Support workers who directly support people with various disabilities. It aims to enhance empathy and an understanding for DSW by allowing them to experience a disability at a first-person immersive viewpoint. 

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Data extraction method

For my scoping review, I am using a google form for data extracting. I like the fact that this method automatically captures a graph of the countries that the research literature has occurred.