Authors: Michael Begg (michael.begg@ed.ac.uk), David Dewhurst (d.dewhurst@ed.ac.uk), Mark Eisler (mark.eisler@ed.ac.uk)
JISC e-Learning Activity Area: technology-enhanced learning environments
Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: medicine dentistry and veterinary medicine
Case study tags: online learning, use of specialist software, an effect on learning,an effect on student personal development,student satisfaction with e-learning,innovation in learning and teaching, an influence on educational research, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, use of resources,management of learning assets, use of gaming/simulation, tangible benefits of e-learning, university of edinburgh,technology-enhanced learning environments, medicine dentistry and veterinary medicine
Background & Context
This case concerns the creation of branching pathway virtual patient cases by Year 5 undergraduate vet students using the Labyrinth application developed by the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine's Learning Technology Section at the University of Edinburgh
Why did you use this e-learning approach?
Labyrinth, a web-based e-learning content creation tool developed by the Learning Technology Section in the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh, afforded an opportunity for student groups to collaborate in generating their own e-learning resources in the form of virtual patient scenarios. This significantly extended the range of student-centred learning activities that teaching staff had previously been able to use, with the added benefit that an artefact of the activity (the completed case) has the potential to be subsequently used as a learning object itself.
The tutors felt that the process of creating labyrinth VP cases allowed students to contextualise their own learning in a way not previously available to them.
This approach has been used in two consecutive student cohorts for this particular project - with both deemed by both students and staff to have been successful in terms of engagement with the subject domain, student engagement and staff satisfaction.
What was the context in which you used this e-learning approach?
The 'project' constitutes a one week activity within a three week student elective in tropical animal medicine for final year (year five) students on the BVM&S programme and is led by one tutor. Activities over the three week duration of the elective comprise virtual patient case creation in Labyrinth, small group discussion, and participation in a debate event. Learning outcomes for the elective are defined as;
- A broad understanding of key issues in animal health in production systems in developing countries in the tropics, including its relevance to poverty alleviation and the MDGsn and the impact of geopolitical changes and privatisation of veterinary services.
- Understanding in this context the importance of, diagnosis, epidemiology & control of:
- zoonotic diseases
- transboundary diseases
- vector-borne diseases
Assessed components of the elective are contribution to discussion, performance in debate and contribution to virtual patient case creation.
What was the design?
The virtual patient case authoring activity ran over one week within the three week block of the elective.
The activity began with a face-to-face introduction to Labyrinth and VUE, with a conceptual overview of narrative-based, game-informed learning by a learning technologist. This session was also attended by the course leader who played an active role in suggesting possible appropriate approaches.
The group (3 students) then devised a fictive scenario of their own choosing that would incorporate the stated learning objectives of the elective. The students had full editing rights to the Labyrinth authoring environment and were free to upload multiple versions of their case and edit the content freely through the course of the week.
At the end of the week, the case was presented to a gathering of 4 - 5 staff members (including the learning technologist) who ran the online VP case developed by each group on a data-projector. The staff played through the scenario several times, varying the pathway they took through the scenario, and asking questions surrounding authorial decisions, possible omissions, suggestions for amendments, as well as questions aimed at ascertaining whether the elective's learning outcomes had been suitably covered.
The students then offered general feedback as to how they felt about the activity.
How did you implement and embed this e-learning approach?
Labyrinth, having been promoted throughout the College and presented widely at conference had generated a generally high level of interest. The Learning Technology Section engaged staff in interactive sessions to learn about the concepts behind virtual patient scenarios/ game-informed learning and offered continuing technical support throughout the development process.
There has been, as yet, little formal evaluation carried out on the activity. However, student feedback (which is elicited at the closing presentation session) during the last instance of the elective was captured on minidisk, and informal feedback from both students and staff direct us to believe that the adoption of the methods and processes of Labyrinth cases makes a positive contribution to the fabric of the curriculum.
The main concern with using Labyrinth is that users will find the environment too technically challenging, especially in an activity that is restricted to a period of time as short as a week. This concern, however, has failed to materialise - though students have indicated that although they were initially reluctant to create the first draft of their VP scenario using VUE, this "middle stage" did ultimately reap rewards in terms of productivity and overall management of the growing case.
Technology Used
What technologies and/or e-tools were available to you?
Labyrinth - an authoring and delivery platform for branching case scenarios developed by the College of Medicine's Learning Technology Section (LTS) was used for the exercise. In addition, VUE, a freeware concept mapping application developed by Tufts University was used. VP scenarios mapped out in VUE are able to be imported directly into Labyrinth for editing.
These tools were chosen because they integrate well with other local (College) learning resources, such as the UG Veterinary VLE, EEVeC- which is also developed in-house by LTS.
Labyrinth, in particular, afforded students the ability to author collaboratively in an online environment. They could work on their case presentation at any time of the day or night during the one week period they were working on this activity.
The content-creation environment supported upload of media such as pictures and sound files as well as the written content of the case itself.
Tangible Benefits
What tangible benefits did this e-learning approach produce?
Significant improvement in student satisfaction with the learning process:
- Student (verbal) feedback (as recorded on minidisk) confirms that Labyrinth offers a learning experience unlike any other - and that this in itself is a positive outcome in their opinion. They suggest that the activity of establishing scenarios featuring characters with a variety of decision points and possible variations of direction to be taken through scenarios presented them with something close to what they imagine professional practice might be like. It, in short, forced them to think like professionals rather than students which, they suggest from their point of view of students very close to graduating, is no bad thing
Significant improvement in staff satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, e-learning:
- This activity resulted in staff satisfaction in that the exercise was enjoyed and valued by the students who fed back their appreciation. It also assisted the staff to understand better some of the processes involved in synthesising key diagnostic and case management information from a case scenario and vice versa.
Significant improvement in staff's ability to deliver e-learning and any actual savings in terms of costs, time and resources:
- It is a notable feature of this activity that it is the students who effectively author their own learning activities and to do this requires consolidation of existing knowledge, learning new knowledge, applying knowledge to a virtual representation of a real world scenario, better understanding of the learning process and reflection on veterinary practice. Direct staff engagement with the activity is limited largely to the opening familiarising session and the closing presentation/assessment session. Staff are contactable by email to address any queries either technological or pedagogical in nature but in fact this has not generated any significant amount of extra work. The authoring and delivery environment is free for use to all teaching staff in the College and so the innovation in approach is not balanced by any consequential balancing financial outlay.
VP scenarios, once created and quality assured through the tutor assessment process, become available for use by the student community as learning resources. Participation of staff in this activity helps them understand better the principles of VP authoring - what makes a successful (in terms of learning outcome) and engaging (in terms of stimulating and motivating independent student learning) VP.
There are also tangible benefits to students in terms of personal development - IT skills, group working, communication skills, etc and to staff in terms of engagement with innovative teaching methods.
No special software is required for the creation of cases as the tools are all web-based and user authenticated. This meant that students could access their work as and when they wanted so long as they had internet access.
Did implementation of this e-learning approach have any disadvantages or drawbacks?
The students were required to spend time learning the basics of the Labyrinth authoring and delivery platform before being able to develop their own virtual patient scenario. However the overall benefit of the exercise to the students more than compensated for the time cost involved.
How did this e-learning approach accord with or differ from any relevant departmental and/or institutional strategies?
This approach has been used for two years and will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. It is pedagogically effective, integrates well with the local VLE system and both staff and students enjoy the activity and the artefacts produced by that activity. This group-centred learning activity is likely to be transferred to other educational programmes in the College.
Lessons Learned
Summary and Reflection
This e-learning approach was highly effective in pedagogical terms and fitted well with departmental and/or institutional strategies to use technology to enhance the student learning experience. Implementing this e-learning approach has improved our understanding of its implementation, usefulness and educational value. In future we shall continue to use this approach but continue to refine the process on the basis of our experience and student feedback.
Further Evidence
'Student (verbal) feedback (as recorded on minidisk) confirms that Labyrinth offers a learning experience unlike any other - and that this in itself is a positive outcome in their opinion. They suggest that the activity of establishing scenarios featuring characters with a variety of decision points and possible variations of direction to be taken through scenarios presented them with something close to what they imagine professional practice might be like. It, in short, forced them to think like professionals rather than students which, they suggest from their point of view of students very close to graduating...'
'It is a notable feature of this activity that it is the students who effectively author their own learning activities and to do this requires consolidation of existing knowledge, learning new knowledge, applying knowledge to a virtual representation of a real world scenario, better understanding of the learning process and reflection on veterinary practice. Direct staff engagement with the activity is limited largely to the opening familiarising session and the closing presentation/assessment session. Staff are contactable by email to address any queries either technological or pedagogical in nature but in fact this has not generated any significant amount of extra work.'
