Bridging the gap in AI healthcare education: enhancing student engagement and communication skills through interactive learning and virtual reality

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into healthcare education presents ongoing challenges in preparing students for real-world analytical and communication demands. This paper introduces an innovative MSc AI module, "AI for Health", designed to bridge the gap between theoretical instruction and practical application through interactive lectures, hands-on machine learning sessions, and an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) experience to enhance student engagement. The one-month module incorporated a VR event using the collaborative game "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes" aimed at enhancing teamwork and communication under time pressure. A pre-module survey showed that 63% of students lacked confidence in presenting AI-related findings to non-technical audiences. Participation in the VR activity helped students overcome reluctance to engage verbally and improved their ability to communicate technical information clearly. Pre- and post-module surveys demonstrated significant gains in students' competence in analyzing clinical datasets and confidence in conveying AI-driven insights. These improvements were attributed to hands-on analytical practice with real-world healthcare datasets and collaborative problem-solving activities such as the VR event. The module received a satisfaction rating of 4.9 out of 5. In addition, the cohort’s strong international representation suggests that immersive and game-based activities may offer meaningful benefits for students who face language or communication barriers. This blended, interactive approach fostered a highly collaborative learning environment and improved learning outcomes, offering practical insights for educators seeking to innovate curriculum design in specialized AI domains.