Dr. Thomas Prola, a professor and researcher at the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO), participated on October 8th and 9th in the 3rd International Conference on Innovative, Sustainable, and Inclusive Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (docencIA), where he presented, virtually, several papers on research initiatives led by the university.
A Digital Simulator to Save Lives: Progress on the FOR-VIDAS Project for the Education of Teachers, Children, and Adolescents
The “Integration of Applied Sciences for Basic Life Support Training” project (FOR_VIDAS), funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities (2025–2028), addresses a widely recognized health and educational need: to increase the public’s ability to respond to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest through training in Basic Life Support (BLS), with a special focus on teachers and adolescents.
The project aims to train teachers to serve as key multipliers in expanding CPR training to students, using a set of educational tools that incorporate a digital simulator for training children and adolescents. The project involves multidisciplinary researchers (in education, health sciences, and computer engineering), and this presentation outlines the project’s common conceptual and methodological framework as a first step toward establishing a shared foundation for the subsequent design of the assessment tools and techno-pedagogical scenarios to be included in the digital simulator.
The presentation is available at the following link.
CLINICALSIM: Emerging Technologies and Educational Humanism in Practical Nursing Training in Angola
The Erasmus+ project “Clinical Simulation Practice-Based Learning in Nursing” (CLINICALSIM), which will conclude in late October, aims to help strengthen capacities for practical nursing education in Angola by integrating high-fidelity clinical simulation and service-learning (ApS). In this process, technology has not been viewed merely as a tool for digitizing education, but rather as an integral part of a pedagogical approach aimed at connecting university education with the real needs of communities.
The presentation outlines the results of the project’s second pilot study, which focused on implementing service-learning in nursing education and involved more than 3,000 participants. The results show that the incorporation of digital technologies is meaningful when integrated into contextualized pedagogical processes. From this perspective, educational humanism is not merely an additional dimension to technological innovation, but rather a criterion for guiding its design, adaptation, and use.
The session is available at this link.
Designing for Diversity: A Model for Sensitive Nutrition Education Using Chatbots, Virtual Patients, and Service-Learning in Angola
This paper presents the model developed as part of the European Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education (CBHE) “Simulation-Based Training and Digital Technologies Combined with a Service-Learning Approach for Experiential and Reflective Learning in Nutrition and Dietetic Education” (MAHINE) for the practical training of nutritionists in Angola, from the perspective of context-sensitive and diversity-oriented nutrition education.
The MAHINE model is based on five pillars: experiential learning, reflective practice, simulation, artificial intelligence, and service-learning. Their program combines chatbots and virtual patients with hands-on and community-based experiences, allowing students to practice nutritional interviews, assessment, professional reasoning, communication, and decision-making in simulated situations before working in real-world settings.
Inclusion is a cross-cutting principle of the model. Diversity is incorporated right from the design stage of the case studies and virtual patients, with an effort to represent the different ages, social conditions, family backgrounds, nutritional situations, dietary practices, and cultural realities found in Angola. In this way, the chatbot ceases to be merely a technological tool and becomes a training ground for intercultural competence and context-specific nutrition communication.
The presentation is available at this link.
About the Conference
The Third International Conference on Innovative, Sustainable, and Inclusive Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence was created with the aim of becoming an international forum for dialogue, reflection, and collaboration among those who believe that educational innovation must always serve people. According to the conference organizers, more than 200 speakers from 19 countries participated in the 2026 edition.