The DiViFaG project – Digital and Virtually Supported Case Work in Health Professions – ran from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022 under the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 16DHB3013). Its aim was to create a transferable didactic concept that embeds problem‑oriented case work into university health‑care education through innovative human‑technology interaction. The consortium, comprising the Fachhochschule Bielefeld, Hochschule Osnabrück, Hochschule Emden/Leer, and the University of Bielefeld (including its medical faculty), developed ten digital case scenarios that combine video‑based case presentations, collaborative group‑work support, and fully immersive virtual‑reality (VR) simulations for practical skill training. All scenarios and accompanying teaching materials were released as Open Educational Resources (OER), making them freely available for other institutions.

Scientifically, the project built on the Lancet Commission’s call for patient‑centred care, interprofessional teamwork, and new information‑technology competencies in health‑care education. Prior research had identified scheduling, spatial constraints, curriculum integration, and varying student learning levels as barriers to interprofessional teaching. Chen et al. (2017) demonstrated that blended‑learning elements can mitigate these obstacles, while evaluations of case work (e.g., Reinhardt et al. 2018; Bergjan 2007) showed enhanced practice orientation, deeper engagement with clinical questions, higher motivation, and overall improved learning outcomes. DiViFaG extended these findings by embedding VR into the case‑work framework, thereby exploring the potential of immersive technology to support interprofessional collaboration and skill acquisition.

The project unfolded in four phases. In the preparatory phase, an interdisciplinary working group conducted a needs and condition analysis through expert interviews and focus groups with medical and nursing students, and published a systematic review of digital and virtual media in case work. The development phase produced the didactic concept and VR scenarios, which were integrated into the most widely used learning platforms in the participating institutions: Ilias at FH Bielefeld and HS Osnabrück, and Moodle at Uni Bielefeld. Most audiovisual content was produced in‑house, while VR material was co‑developed by HS Emden/Leer and FH Bielefeld, and by HS Osnabrück and the medical faculty of Uni Bielefeld. In the testing phase, first‑year students from the 2021/22 winter semester in nursing (FH Bielefeld), dual nursing (HS Osnabrück), and medicine (Uni Bielefeld) evaluated the scenarios. A mixed‑methods design combined qualitative modules (interviews, focus groups) with quantitative surveys, allowing a systematic comparison of the digitally supported concept against traditional teaching models across three sites. The evaluation phase refined the concept based on student feedback and performance data, although specific numeric performance metrics were not reported in the summary.

Collaboration was tightly coordinated: FH Bielefeld led the overall project management and integration into Ilias, HS Osnabrück managed the Ilias implementation for its nursing program, and Uni Bielefeld provided the Moodle environment and medical faculty expertise. The VR scenarios were jointly produced by the technical teams of HS Emden/Leer, FH Bielefeld, HS Osnabrück, and the medical faculty, ensuring that the simulations reflected realistic clinical contexts for both nursing and medical students. The consortium’s interprofessional composition facilitated the alignment of curricular goals across disciplines, while the open‑access release of resources promotes broader dissemination and potential adaptation by other universities.

In summary, DiViFaG delivered a fully documented, interprofessional didactic concept that integrates digital media and VR into case‑based learning for health‑care education. The project demonstrated that immersive simulations can be embedded within existing learning management systems, that students from diverse health‑care programs can engage with these tools, and that the resulting resources are available as OER for the wider academic community. The collaboration among five higher‑education institutions, supported by the BMBF, exemplifies a successful model for developing and evaluating technology‑enhanced teaching materials in health‑care education.