The architecture and development of multi-role course design of a web-based group training system

Due to the fast development of information technology there are new opportunities for traditional training systems. Many e-training systems are proposed and implemented, however, there is rarely any research on group based e-training system that allow people to train in a group that involves different roles. This paper proposes an architecture for a web based surgery group training system that supports multi-role group training courses. A course model based on XPDL (XML Process Definition Language) is introduced to bridge the understanding of a graphical multi-role course design and the computer application. There is also an explanation on how the multi-role courses are designed and used in applications. Finally a demonstration experiment is given

The VPS ReplaySuite: development and evaluation of a novel, Internet based telepathology tool

The ReplaySuite is a web-based telepathology tool that replicates the doubleheaded microscope environment online, enabling a reviewing pathologist to ‘replay’ an archived virtual slide examination. Examination-tracking data obtained by the Virtual Pathology Slide (VPS) virtual slide viewer is exploited, allowing a remote pathologist to review an examination conducted at a different time and location. This removes temporal and spatial issues associated with double-headed microscopy. In order to conduct a preliminary evaluation of the technology, 9 pathologists used the ReplaySuite to review examination replays and diagnostic data from archived examinations of 10 needlecore breast biopsies. Diagnostically difficult cases were most frequently evaluated, either via diagnostic concordance graphs or examination replays, and all 3 participants who replayed more than 10 examinations stated the ReplaySuite to be of some or great benefit in pathology training and quality assurance. Of those who replayed an examination by another pathologist, 83% (5/6) agreed that replays provided an insight into the examining pathologists diagnosis, and 33% (2/6) reconsidered their own diagnosis for at least one case. Of those who reconsidered their original diagnosis, all reclassified either concordant with group consensus or original glass slide diagnosis. This study demonstrated that the ReplaySuite was of potential benefit in pathology education, however the technology required evaluation in a setting that would facilitate its impact on diagnostic performance. Accordingly, a redeveloped VPS and ReplaySuite were incorporated into the EQUALIS External Quality Assurance (EQA) study in chronic hepatitis staging and grading. During the study, 9 Swedish pathology departments examined and scored digital representations of liver needlecore biopsies during two sessions, with 10 cases per session and two digital slides per case. Between scoring sessions, participants were provided with access to two supplementary electronic resources: the ReplaySuite, and a library of pre-selected reference images. Comparison of concordance with gold standard (KVAST group) scoring before and after electronic resource use facilitated the elucidation of impact on diagnostic performance. Between scoring sessions, participant concordance with KVAST staging increased by 18% (49%-67%), while concordance with KVAST grading increased by 20% (34%-54%). Mean staging un-weighted kappa improved from 0.347 to 0.554 (+0.207), or from ‘fair’ to ‘moderate’ exact agreement with KVAST staging. Linear weighted staging kappa improved from 0.603 to 0.688 (+0.085), indicating close agreement in both sessions. Mean grading unweighted kappa increased from 0.132 to 0.412 (+0.280), or from a ‘poor’ to ‘moderate’ level o f exact agreement with KVAST, while linear weighted kappa improved from 0.328 to 0.624 (+0.295), or from ‘fair’ to ‘good’ level of approximate agreement with KVAST. Subsequent to the EQA scheme, an expert liver pathologist used the ReplaySuite to evaluate study examinations, assessing examination technique and identifying sources of error. Examinations scoring concordant with KVAST were observed to exhibit acceptable examination technique more frequently than discordantly scoring examinations. When grading, 28% (46% - 18%) more concordant than discordant examinations were considered to have viewed sufficient tissue, and at the appropriate magnification. A similar disparity of 24% (59% - 35%) was observed in staging, suggesting that examination technique was important both when determining the degree of necroinflammation within a biopsy, and when ascertaining the extent of fibrosis. In assessing sources of error, the expert pathologist identified a potential source in 50% of grading examinations, with misinterpretation of observed pathology cited in 19%, and missed pathology (oversight) cited in 31% of grading examinations. Of the 41% of staging examinations in which a source was identified, misinterpretation of observed pathology was cited in 20% of examinations, and missed pathology (oversight) in 21% of examinations. This study demonstrated that the use of supplementary electronic resources could result in improvements in diagnostic performance. It also illustrated the significant ‘add on’ value that could be provided by the ReplaySuite in EQA, by providing means to assess not only diagnostic concordance, but also diagnostic technique and identify sources of error. In order to assess Irish trainee pathologist’s perceptions of computer-assisted learning (CAL), a number of commercial systems were utilised to incorporate digital slides into a postgraduate seminar series, and provide subsequent access to seminar digital slides, diagnoses and expert annotations online. All surveyed trainees considered the use of digital slides and expert annotations of benefit in pathology training, and considered the potential implementation of expert examination replays, online self-assessment and the capability to search online for material by organ, diagnosis or pathological feature of benefit. The work described herein illustrates that both expert and trainee pathologists alike consider the use of supplementary electronic resources of benefit in pathology education, and demonstrates that their use can improve diagnostic performance. The ability to evaluate participation in EQA studies via the ReplaySuite provides significant additional value to education schemes, providing a depth of assessment not possible with conventional microscopy

Developing Student Model for Intelligent Tutoring System

The effectiveness of an e-learning environment mainly encompasses on how efficiently the tutor presents the learning content to the candidate based on their learning capability. It is therefore inevitable for the teaching community to understand the learning style of their students and to cater for the needs of their students. One such system that can cater to the needs of the students is the Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). To overcome the challenges faced by the teachers and to cater to the needs of their students, e-learning experts in recent times have focused in Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). There is sufficient literature that suggested that meaningful, constructive and adaptive feedback is the essential feature of ITSs, and it is such feedback that helps students achieve strong learning gains. At the same time, in an ITS, it is the student model that plays a main role in planning the training path, supplying feedback information to the pedagogical module of the system. Added to it, the student model is the preliminary component, which stores the information to the specific individual learner. In this study, Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) was administered to capture the student ability with respect to three levels of difficulty, namely, low, medium and high in Physics domain to train the neural network. Further, neural network and psychometric analysis were used for understanding the student characteristic and determining the student’s classification with respect to their ability. Thus, this study focused on developing a student model by using the Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) for integrating it with an ITS by applying the neural network and psychometric analysis. The findings of this research showed that even though the linear regression between real test scores and that of the Final exam scores were marginally weak (37%), still the success of the student classification to the extent of 80 percent (79.8%) makes this student model a good fit for clustering students in groups according to their common characteristics. This finding is in line with that of the findings discussed in the literature review of this study. Further, the outcome of this research is most likely to generate a new dimension for cluster based student modelling approaches for an online learning environment that uses aptitude tests (MCQ’s) for learners using ITS. The use of psychometric analysis and neural network for student classification makes this study unique towards the development of a new student model for ITS in supporting online learning. Therefore, the student model developed in this study seems to be a good model fit for all those who wish to infuse aptitude test based student modelling approach in an ITS system for an online learning environment. (Abstract by Author

Tutor Inteligente para o Ensino em Medicina

O objectivo deste trabalho consistiu no desenvolvimento de um protótipo que possibilita a adaptação do conteúdo disponibilizado de acordo com as características pessoais e psicológicas do aluno, aplicado no ensino da Medicina, nomeadamente na componente de Desenho de Estudos da disciplina de Introdução à Medicina. Para o protótipo desenvolvido foi definida uma arquitectura constituída por três componentes: um Modelo de Aluno que engloba as características pessoais e psicológicas do aluno, um Modelo de Domínio constituído por um grafo de conceitos e um Modelo Pedagógico formado pelas regras de adaptação e mecanismos de interação utilizados para obter uma solução adaptativa. Os diferentes componentes desenvolvidos para este protótipo permitem que este apresente as seguintes funcionalidades: Acesso ao conceito adequado, tendo em consideração o nível de conhecimento do aluno; Visualização de conte udos adequados ao estilo de aprendizagem do aluno; Adaptação do percurso do aluno de acordo com os resultados obtidos; Atualização das preferências de aprendizagem, com base no comportamento demonstrado pelo aluno na interação com o sistema. A primeira versão da ferramenta j a foi implementada. No entanto ainda será realizada a avaliação do protótipo em ambiente de aprendizagem, com a maior brevidade possível.The main goal of this project was developing a prototype that allows the adaptation of the available content, according to personal and psychological characteristics of the student, applied to support medical education, in the subject of Introduction to Medicine. For the prototype it was defined an architecture with three components: the Student Model that has personal and psychological features of the student, the Domain Model composed by a concepts graph and the Adaptation Model which reflects the adaptation rules used to obtain an adaptive solution. The prototype developed allows performing the following functionalities: Access to adequate content, considering the student's knowledge; Visualization of content those are adequate to the student's learning style; Adaptation of the student's learning process based on the results obtained; Update learning preferences, accordingly to the behavior showed by the student when interacting with the system. The first version of the prototype has been implemented, however it will still be held to evaluate the prototype in learning environment, as soon as possible

Reader zum Workshop Standardisierung im eLearning : Begleitveranstaltung zum Förderprogramm Neue Medien in der Bildung ; 10./11. April 2002 Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main

Bei der Entwicklung und vor allem bei der institutions- und projektübergreifenden Nutzung von eLearning Modulen oder Lernobjekten spielen Standards und Spezifikationen zu deren Beschreibung und Verwaltung eine immer wichtigere Rolle. Nur auf deren Basis können sich langfristig Verwaltungs- und Verwertungsmodelle entwickeln, die eine breite Nutzung von eLearning Modulen bis hin zur Entwicklung eines entsprechenden Marktes ermöglichen. Aufgrund allgemeingültiger Spezifikation für die Beschreibung von Lernobjekten bis hin zu standardisierten Angaben für komplette online Kurse werden Anbieter und Nachfrager in Tauschbörsen, institutionsübergreifenden Kooperationen, fachspezifischen Datenbanken und Bildungsservern eLearning Ressourcen anbieten und nutzen. Projekte und Initiativen stehen jetzt vor der Aufgabe, sich einen Überblick über vorhandene Standards und Spezifikationen zu verschaffen, um für sich selbst die geeigneten auswählen und anwenden zu können. Oft werden aufgrund der projektspezifischen Anforderungen zudem eigene Beschreibungen entwickelt. Dadurch entsteht eine Vielzahl von Beschreibungen, die den Austausch und das Auffinden von Modulen über die Projektgrenzen hinaus schwierig wenn nicht unmöglich machen. Der in diesem Band dokumentierte Workshop "Standardisierung im eLearning" hat das Ziel, die aktuelle Diskussion um die Entwicklung und Anwendung von Standards aufzugreifen, transparent zu machen und fortzuführen. Veranstalter des Workshops sind das Kompetenzzentrum für Neue Medien in der Lehre der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main und der Projektträger Neue Medien in der Bildung + Fachinformation. Die Veranstaltung setzt die Reihe von themenspezifischen Begleitworkshops im Rahmen des Förderprogramms Neue Medien in der Bildung fort. Eine Übersicht zu bereits durchgeführten und in Planung befindlichen Begleitveranstaltungen finden Sie auf dem Internet-Portal des Projektträgers (http://www.medien-bildung.net)

Entwicklung und Einsatz computergestützter Lernprogramme in der radiologischen Lehre

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde der Einsatz eines Computergestützten fallbasierten Lernprogrammes in einer interaktiven und einer identischen nicht-interaktiven Version mit einer papieradaptierten interaktiven Version desselben Lernmaterials unter Berücksichtigung subjektiver und objektiver Testparameter untersucht. Den in die drei Gruppen randomisierten Studierenden des 4. Klinischen Semesters wurde eine Kontrollgruppe ohne Praktikumsteilnahme gegenübergestellt. Alle Studierenden hatten einen Test vor und nach dem Semester zu absolvieren, wobei jeweils 4 Röntgenbilder und 14 Multiple Choice-Prüfungsfragen aus bisherigen zweiten Staatsexamina zur Anwendung kamen. Zusätzlich hatten die Studierenden einen Evaluationsbogen mit verschiedenen epidemischen und motivationsbezogenen Fragen zu beantworten. Im Multiple Choice Test zeigten alle drei Gruppen signifikant bessere Resultate als die Kontrollgruppe, am meisten die nichtinteraktiv am Computer arbeitende Gruppe, wobei zwischen den Interventionsgruppen kein signifikanter Unterschied bestand. Bei der Röntgenbildinterpretation schnitt die interaktiv am Computer arbeitende Gruppe am besten ab. Wieder hatten alle drei Interventionsgruppen signifikant höhere Testergebnisse als die Kontrollgruppe. Die Studie zeigt, dass fallbasierte Computerlernprogramme erfolgreich in ein bestehendes Curriculum integriert werden können und auch schon bei kleiner Intervention einen signifikanten Lernerfolg aufweisen. Es zeigen sich Vorteile der interaktiven Version bezüglich der Simulation des späteren ärztlichen Tätigkeitsfeldes. Die Überprüfung des reinen Wissenszuwachses ergibt hingegen keinen signifikanten Unterschied zwischen den verschiedenen Lernmedien oder -versionen