Dr Vanessa Ferguson

Vanessa has been a qualified social worker since 2009, and before that had experience of working in primary schools and after school clubs from 2004 - 2009. Vanessa’s social work practice centred on adult mental health, before the move into social work education.
Vanessa now has experience in developing VR (virtual reality) simulation material, along with Paul Driver (Director for Simulated Learning) and Dr. Marques Hardin for the education of social work students. Their work is featured in Bloomsbury's Social Work Toolkit.

Email: [email protected]

Background

Vanessa worked in adult mental health for seven years, based in the community and then a psychiatric hospital. She also worked as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP), adult safeguarding lead and was the team leader of an award-winning Home Treatment Team (Home Treatment Accreditation Scheme awarded by the Royal College of Psychiatry in 2014).

Since joining Anglia Ruskin University Vanessa has run a successful skills-based module where her VR simulation work is embedded. She has also performed leadership roles including Deputy Head of School and achieved Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2023. Vanessa organised faculty wide presentations from notable speakers such as Lemn Sissay and Michael Rosen. Vanessa is currently in role as an Associate Professor, working on a 3-year plan to create and embed more VR simulations across the social work course and across the wider school.

Research interests

Use of VR simulation in the skills education of social work students.

Teaching

• Standards and Skills for Practice 1
• Sustainable Social Work
• Well-Being Across the Lifecourse
• The Application of Theory to Social Work Practice
• Social Work with Adults

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Education (Anglia Ruskin University)
• PG Cert in Higher Education (Anglia Ruskin University)
• Masters Degree Social Work (Anglia Ruskin University)

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Closer to Research Professional Development - VR Link Person
• Knowledge Exchange Project with Bloomsbury Publishers 2024
• Course leader for Mental Health Training for Hubei Delegates, 2019

Selected recent publications

Ferguson. V. (2024) How do Social Work students develop skills by using practice-based virtual reality (VR) simulation? A UK higher education institution case study, Edulearn24 Proceedings, pp. 2809-2818. doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2024.0758

Ferguson, V., & Driver, P. (2019). Digitising Experience: The Creation and Application of Immersive Simulations in the Context of Social Work Training. The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning, 16(1-2), 38-50. https://doi.org/10.1921/jpts.v16i1.1227

Recent presentations and conferences

2024 CIHE Pedagogic Research Conference ARU “How do social work students develop skills by using practice-based virtual reality (VR) simulation? A UK Higher Education Institution Case Study” (July, 2024)

2024 VR Simulation Learning Materials for Bloomsbury Publishers

2024 Virtual presentation at 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. Palma (Spain) (July 2024)

2024 Conference Publication for 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies

2023 Presentation of research findings at Engage Conference, ARU (June, 2023) 2022 Presentation of research findings at Overcoming Challenges in Research. 8th Annual Research Conference, ARU Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care (May, 2022)

2019 Publication - Driver, P. and Ferguson, V. (2019). Digitising Experience. The creation and application of immersive simulations in social work training. The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning [e-journal] 6, No 1-2. 2018 Presentation of use of VR simulation in social work education at 12th International Conference on Practice Learning Teaching and Field Education in Health and Social Work, St John’s College, Oxford University (September, 2018)