FMS TEL recently attended a presentation on a mixed reality platform called GigXR, a clinical simulation platform with a number of apps, including HoloScenarios and HoloHuman.
The target audience is mainly medical education courses at the moment.
This technology aims to:
create a consistency of experience for all students
provide repetitive training in a safe-fail environment
reach rural learners
reduce instructor time
How it works
A headset is connected wirelessly to a computer which generates a hologram of a patient into the room through the headset. There is equipment nearby, such as oxygen masks and blood pressure cuffs. You can interact with items and use them on the patient.
You are able to insert your own 3D digital objects into the software. For example, if you have created a 3D image of a heart from CT scans. GigXR can create a holographic version which you can view through the headset.
Conversational AI is being integrated, so you can talk to the patient and ask questions. Currently this is in text format using ChatGPT, but developments are being made and hopefully soon you will be able to actually speak to the patient.
During the recent Teaching and Learning Conference, prompted by Michelle Miller’s poster on Adobe Acrobat, we were asked if it was possible to add audio to a pdf document. Here’s how to do it:
Add Audio in Adobe Acrobat Reader
Click on Comments
Click on the attachments icon
Select Record Audio
Click the cursor where you want the audio to appear. A Sounder Recorder prompt will appear.
You now have two options:
record directly into acrobat
browse for an existing file
Record audio comments directly into Acrobat
Click the Record button and speak into your microphone. Click the Stop button when you have finished.
Click OK to add the recorded audio
Select your preferred icon and colour, then click OK
Embed an existing audio file
Click the Browse button
Navigate to your existing audio file
Click Open
Click OK to add the audio file
Select your preferred icon and colour, then click OK
Note: this only supports uncompressed WAVand AIFF files.
Have you ever heard students complain about a particular topic? Module Leaders for our Chemotherapy Nurse Training module often come across such complaints for their Cell Cycle topic. As the issue was becoming a perennial problem, we decided to thoroughly review the topic that was causing frustration among our students. This blog post shares our project and the transformative impact it had on our students’ perception and understanding of the once-hated topic.
Revamping the Content
We started with the learning objectives for the topic. Using Blooms Verb Wheel as a guide we changed the wording so the objectives would be measurable, and therefore the students could better understand what was expected of them. We removed words such as “understand” and replaced them with “describe”.
Next we reviewed the flow of the topic. We started with a text heavy page with stock images covering; cell basics, cancer, chemotherapy, and ending with the phases of the cell cycle. This page was edited, removing over 100 words, and rearranged so we covered; normal cells and their cycles, then moved onto cancer and chemotherapy. The stock images were converted into animated infographics that were tailor made for the content being discussed.
The biggest change was with the asynchronous lecture. The audio was good quality and the messages were still relevant, however the lecture slides were text heavy and had an outdated look.
Original slide: What is the cell cycle
Original slide: This is good news, but…
The slides were given a facelift and where possible, animations were used to replace the text. We hoped the animations would assist the students in visualising the processes being described by the voiceover.
Updated slide: what is the cell cycle
Updated slide: This is good news, but…
Next the students had two tasks to complete. One was to answer some basic questions, and the other was to put their knowledge into action within a group activity. We spruced up the tasks visually, but didn’t make any other changes to them.
We chose to add a “check your knowledge” type quiz, using H5P, at the end of the topic. The questions directly linked to the learning outcomes and we hoped would help the students confidence with the topic.
Student feedback (before):
Found the cell cycle topic very difficult to understand.
I am dreading the cell cycle topic
Student feedback (after):
The topic I have enjoyed most was topic 3 (The cell cycle)
I have particularly enjoyed topics 3 – going further in depth into the cell cycle and pharmacology of the drugs we use has been really useful
I quite enjoyed the cell cycle section…I enjoy the lightbulb moments I’ve had understanding how everything links together.
Final Thoughts
The module team is thrilled with the amazing transformation we witnessed. Our goal was to address the complaints and make things better for the students. But we ended up surpassing our own expectations. The topic that used to be dreaded by the students has now become one of their favourites. The positive feedback from the students has made us proud and motivated us to continue on our journey for improvement. It’s really amazing to see such a big change in how they feel about the subject, with only a few tweaks in how the content was delivered.
Following their successful presentation at our FMS TEL Conference, Rebecca Handcock and Bas Olthof presented at the regional Three Rivers Conference on 27 June 2023, discussing their escape room style seminars in Neurological Clinical Reasoning.
Students are organised into groups of 6-8 in learning labs. They work through eight clinical cases to identify the neurological diagnosis through peer-led clinical reasoning. Each case has hidden puzzles which students complete to get more information for their diagnosis.
Students are provided with a link to access the first puzzle. They must put in the most likely diagnosis before they can proceed to access the scan images. They receive automated feedback from the system, as well as feedback from tutors who facilitate the seminars.
The exercises help with critical thinking and problem solving skills, diagnosis skills, communication, teamworking, and create a little bit of competition between groups.
The escape rooms are created using H5P, which can consist of drag and drop exercises, branching scenarios, images with information hotspots detailing medical history and symptoms etc.
