Faculty Development Program in Dokuz Eylül School of Medicine: In the process of curriculum change from traditional to PBL

Introduction: In Dokuz Eylül School of Medicine (DESM) a faculty development program is being carried out by the "Trainers' Training Committee". DESM made a fundamental change in its curriculum from traditional to Problem-based Learning (PBL) in 1997. This was the first implementation of a PBL curriculum in Turkey. Faculty development activities were initiated in the same year. This paper describes the faculty development activities with a special emphasis on PBL courses. Program description: Between 1997-2000 27 four-day long PBL courses were held for 343 participants. The curriculum consisted of PBL philosophy, PBL steps, role of the tutor and students in PBL process, effective case design, assessment principles and group dynamics. PBL simulations enabled the participants to play the roles of both tutors and students. Process evaluation: At the end of the program most of the participants stated that length of the program, content, training methods and the course organization was appropriate. The majority of the participants (89.5%) found the program very useful. PBL steps, PBL practices and PBL philosophy were found as the most useful sessions. Discussion: These courses gave medical staff the opportunity to develop their understanding of PBL methodology and theory. PBL courses and continuous educational activities such as weekly tutor meetings are being held and new courses on advanced tutoring skills are being planned for the near future in DESM

E-Simulations for educating the professions in blended learning environments

This chapter introduces digital, role-based simulations as an emerging and powerful educational approach for the professions and for broader workforce development purposes. It is acknowledged that simulations used for education, professional development, and training, have a long history of development and use. The focus is on digital simulations (e-simulations) situated in blended learning environments and the improved affordances of the newer digital media used via the web to enhance the value of their contribution to learning and teaching in professional and vocationally-oriented fields. This is an area which has received less attention in the whole “e-learning” literature compared with the voluminous body of knowledge and practice on computer-mediated communication, online community building, social networking, and various forms of online (usually automated) assessment. A framework of blended e-simulation design is outlined. The chapter concludes by examining what the future might hold for simulations in further and higher education, and ongoing work-based learning

The Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE): A qualitative study exploring the healthcare student’s experience

The paper relates to delivering vocational higher education to prospective building surveyors. Preparing students for the workplace requires inclusion of academic knowledge, workplace skills and practical vocational experience. This is reinforced by feedback from the four stakeholders to surveying education, learner, employer, education provider and professional institution. Successful delivery of learning to distinct vocational groups requires specific pedagogy. The paper analyses a realistic industrial simulation delivered to teach knowledge and skills to undergraduate building surveying students. Initial pedagogy was proposed by CEEBL, Centre for Excellence in Enquiry Based Learning. Work based skills requirements were taken from published work including leading building surveying academics and practitioners like Professor Mike Hoxley and Professor Malcolm Hollis. Data analysis is used to evolve future simulations. These become better suited to delivering appropriate learning, valid assessment and usable vocational skills, against academic, student focused and industrial criteria. An action research approach is utilised by the author to develop specialist pedagogy through analysis of outcome data and stakeholder feedback. Action research is undertaken through an approach using trial, evaluation and development. The paper concludes, simulation can be a valid tool for delivering teaching, learning, assessment and vocational skills training to surveying students and justifies further research

Imparting work based skills on vocational courses, pedagogy of using industrial simulation in surveying education: a study of a model run at Sheffield Hallam University in 2011

The paper relates to delivering vocational higher education to prospective building surveyors. Preparing students for the workplace requires inclusion of academic knowledge, workplace skills and practical vocational experience. This is reinforced by feedback from the four stakeholders to surveying education, learner, employer, education provider and professional institution. Successful delivery of learning to distinct vocational groups requires specific pedagogy. The paper analyses a realistic industrial simulation delivered to teach knowledge and skills to undergraduate building surveying students. Initial pedagogy was proposed by CEEBL, Centre for Excellence in Enquiry Based Learning. Work based skills requirements were taken from published work including leading building surveying academics and practitioners like Professor Mike Hoxley and Professor Malcolm Hollis. Data analysis is used to evolve future simulations. These become better suited to delivering appropriate learning, valid assessment and usable vocational skills, against academic, student focused and industrial criteria. An action research approach is utilised by the author to develop specialist pedagogy through analysis of outcome data and stakeholder feedback. Action research is undertaken through an approach using trial, evaluation and development. The paper concludes, simulation can be a valid tool for delivering teaching, learning, assessment and vocational skills training to surveying students and justifies further research

myCopter: Enabling Technologies for Personal Aerial Transportation Systems: Project status after 2.5 years

Current means of transportation for daily commuting are reaching their limits during peak travel times, which results in waste of fuel and loss of time and money. A recent study commissioned by the European Union considers a personal aerial transportation system (PATS) as a viable alternative for transportation to and from work. It also acknowledges that developing such a transportation system should not focus on designing a new flying vehicle for personal use, but instead on investigating issues surrounding the implementation of the transportation system itself. This is the aim of European project myCopter: to determine the social and technological aspects needed to set up a transportation system based on personal aerial vehicles (PAVs). The project focuses on three research areas: human-machine interfaces and training, automation technologies, and social acceptance. Our extended abstract for inclusion in the conference proceedings and our presentation will focus on the achievements during the first 2.5 years of the 4-year project. These include the development of an augmented dynamic model of a PAV with excellent handling qualities that are suitable for training purposes. The training requirements for novice pilots are currently under development. Experimental evaluations on haptic guidance and human-in-the-loop control tasks have allowed us to start implementing a haptic Highway-in-the-Sky display to support novice pilots and to investigate metrics for objectively determining workload using psychophysiological measurements. Within the project, developments for automation technologies have focused on vision-based algorithms. We have integrated such algorithms in the control and navigation architecture of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Detecting suitable landing spots from monocular camera images recorded in flight has proven to reliably work off-line, but further work is required to be able to use this approach in real time. Furthermore, we have built multiple low-cost UAVs and equipped them with radar sensors to test collision avoidance strategies in real flight. Such algorithms are currently under development and will take inspiration from crowd simulations. Finally, using technology assessment methodologies, we have assessed potential markets for PAVs and challenges for its integration into the current transportation system. This will lead to structured discussions on expectations and requirements of potential PAV users

Effect of Team Development Intervention on Disaster Volunteer’s Problem-Solving Ability and Team Work Process

This study investigates the impact of team development training interventions on teamwork effectiveness, as manifested by the team's problem-solving ability and the quality of their collaborative efforts. The experimental research design employed in this study involved two independent groups (a between-group design) with a singular dependent variable. The experimental group comprised 10 participants who underwent team development training interventions, while the control group, also consisting of 10 participants, underwent a placebo treatment in the form of psychological first-aid training. The assessment methodology utilized a group problem-solving test, specifically employing simulation games involving scenarios such as traffic jam and bomb squad simulations. The measurement outcomes revealed a substantial difference (44%) in task completion duration between the control and experimental groups. During the task completion, the Mann-Whitney test yielded a Z-value of -2.612, with an Asymp. Sig. (two-tailed) value of 0.009 (<0.01), indicating a significant difference in the assessment scores for the task completion process between the control and experimental groups. The interventions provided are proven to improve team cognition and affect, stimulating constructive team behavior in completing the task the groups fac

Emergency medical services (EMS) training in Kenya: Findings and recommendations from an educational assessment

Background: Over the past twenty years, Kenya has been developing many important components of a prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) system. This is due to the ever-increasing demand for emergency medical care across the country. To better inform the next phase of this development, we undertook an assessment of the current state of EMS training in Kenya. Methods: A group of international and Kenyan experts with relevant EMS and educational expertise conducted an observational qualitative assessment of Kenyan EMS training institutions in 2016. Three assessment techniques were utilised: semi-structured interviews, document review, and structured observations. Recommendations were reached through a consensus process amongst the assessment team. Results: Key findings include: (i) No national or state-level policy exists that establishes levels of EMS providers or expected fund of knowledge and skills; (ii) Training institutions have independently created their own individual training standards; (iii) Training materials are not adapted for the local context; (iv) The foundation of basic anatomy and physiology education is weak; (v) Training does not focus on symptom- or syndrome-based complaints; (vi) Students had difficulty applying foundational classroom knowledge in simulations and clinical encounters; (vii) There is limited emphasis on complex critical thinking. Discussion: Standardisation of training is needed in Kenya, including clearly defined levels of providers and expected learning outcomes. A nationally standardised EMS provider scope of practice may also help focus EMS education. Instructors must reinforce basic anatomy and physiology amongst all trainees to establish a robust foundation, then layer on field experience before trainees receive advanced training. Training graduates should be EMS providers who approach patient care with high-order symptom- or syndrome-based critical thinking. While these recommendations are specific to the Kenyan EMS environment, they may have wider applicability to other developing EMS systems in resource-limited settings

MAGES 4.0: Accelerating the world's transition to medical VR training

In this work, we propose MAGES 4.0, a novel Software Development Kit (SDK) to accelerate the creation of collaborative medical training scenarios in VR/AR. Our solution offers a versatile authoring platform for developers to create medical simulations in a future-proof, low-code environment. MAGES breaks the boundaries between realities since students can collaborate using virtual and augmented reality devices at the same medical scene. With MAGES we provide a solution to the 150-year-old training model which is unable to meet the level of healthcare professionals needed. Our platform incorporates, among others, the following novel advancements: a) 5G edge-cloud remote rendering and physics dissection, b) realistic real-time simulation of organic tissues as soft-bodies, c) a highly realistic cutting and tearing algorithm, d) neural network assessment for user profiling and, e) a VR recorder to record and replay or resume the training simulation from any perspective

Design of a Semi-Virtual Training Environment (Serious Game) for Decision-Makers Facing up a Major Crisis

International audienceWhen major crises occur, organizations face critical concerns, such as stress, uncertainties, need of quick anticipation and better communication. The need of experience implies a regular training of those involved. Serious games and environmental computer-based simulations are useful training tools for people who have to manage a crisis. They are relevant for educational purposes, for the acquisition of technical and non-technical skills, of automatic reflexes, and of ways of thinking. The suitability of the teaching strategy in link with the profile of participants and the moderation by the trainers are difficult. The present work aims at solving these difficulties by the development of a distributed multitier architecture, computer-assisted training, a multiagent system, and requirements for a relevant physical infrastructure. Our methodology integrates four steps: exercise modeling, scenario modeling, scenario simulation with a multiagent system, debriefing approach and learning objectives assessment. Our methodological recommendations have been applied in order to define a real semi-virtual training environment. Limits and prospects are already identified for further improvements

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Brian Clegg, Mining The Internet — Information Gathering and Research on the Net, Kogan Page: London, 1999. ISBN: 0–7494–3025–7. Paperback, 147 pages, £9.99