Arden University’s Virtual Crime World has been nominated as a finalist at the prestigious 2024 BETT awards.
The British Educational Training and Technology Awards represent a celebration of the inspiring creativity and innovation that can be found throughout technology for education, and Arden’s new Virtual Crime World has been nominated in the innovation category, designed to reward companies that have demonstrated outstanding innovation in the last 12 months either via the release of game changing technology or through creative and genuinely unique initiatives with demonstrable outcomes.
Creating a virtual reality crime world, Arden University’s School of Investigation, Security and Defence has displayed its commitment towards developing innovative degrees with vocational aspects, allowing learners to experience the processes and procedures that occur when investigating a crime, from both a forensic and police perspective.
Offering an immersive and narrative-driven experience, this interactive platform has been created to allow distance learning students to experience real-life vocational aspects of investigative roles that they would not normally encounter in a distance learning course. The virtual crime world is made up of several distinctive situations and locations, specifically designed to complement a student’s studies. Among the virtual scenes is a fully rendered murder scene at a private home, encouraging students to search the surroundings for clues; gather, label, and treat evidence; and analyse interactive elements like blood splatter and dust for fingerprints, as they solve the case.
The scenes also take students inside a forensics lab, as well as an office scene which enables students to build out their skills as an analyst. Using cutting-edge technology to create dynamic situation-based learning and a unique pedagogy, the VR technology helps provide learners with an unparalleled digital experience in the academic area of policing and forensic investigation.
The winners of each category will be announced at the Bett Awards 2024 Ceremony, taking place on 24 January in London.
