Computer-based alternatives – past, present and future

David DewhurstAssistant Principal (e-learning & e-health)Director of Learning TechnologyCollege of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, The University of Edinburgh

Computer-based alternatives – past, present and future

Main points to be covered

• Multimedia computer simulations of lab classes in pharmacology and physiology

• Are they educationally effective alternatives

• How can we persuade teachers to use them

• The future of CAL development - a Reusable Learning Object approach - ReCAL a Research and Development project funded by The Lord Dowding Fund

Multimedia computer simulations

•Lots of them •High Quality•Evidence is that they work

•Poorly used•Expensive to produce•Not editable•Technical obsolescence

www.sheffbp.co.uk

High quality images

Animations

Video, audio

Simulations

Simulations

Evidence: computer simulations versus ‘animal labs’

• Numerous Studies:

– Clarke, ATLA 14: 134-140 (1987)– Dewhurst, et al ATLA 15: 280-289 (1988)– Dewhurst et al (1994) Amer. J. Physiol. 267 (Adv.

Physiol. Educ. 12) S95-S104– Hughes (2001) TIPS 22: 2, 71-74

• Findings– Knowledge gain equivalent– Students accept/enjoy as much/more– Costs are lower– Group work and staff-student interaction are promoted– Laboratory/practical skills cannot be taught

They are good…. they work….

so why are they poorly used? – Not invented here– Non-editable locally – Not web deliverable - only LAN– Need to be embedded – requires time and

skills so resource implications– Need regular content and technological

updating

How do we persuade teachers to use them?

Persuading teachers

• Several ways of doing this:– raise awareness– give examples of how they are being

used in other universities – demonstrate which learning outcomes

they can most usefully address– provide independent reviews– present evidence from evaluations of

their effectiveness

EURCA www.eurca.org

Embedding alternatives into teaching

• One approach is to develop ‘wrap-around’ support materials e.g. text-based study guides or workbooks

• these may be similar to lab schedules and should include learning outcomes

• exercises, tasks and activities should be built-in

• self-assessment questions should be included to reinforce learning

Tasks/activities - individual or group centred

•Record and Measure - test accuracy of measurements–record responses of...to... measure .... quantify....

•Data Analysis–plot... extrapolate.....determine.... calculate…

•Data Interpretation Skills–describe.... list...explain.... discuss....

•Presentation Skills–construct a table... draw a graph..prepare an abstract...

–Experimental Design–design an experiment to....identify the unknown X...

•Knowledge of underlying principles–use MCQs, True/False etc

Content Authoring - old

• The author imports different learning objects/assets (building bricks) into an authoring package:

•text, images, video, audio, animations, assessments, web-pages, data

• Built into a single compiled program. It cannot be easily edited and if the run-time program becomes obsolete then the rest of the program is also lost.

ReCAL Stage 1 – Disaggregation - abstracting the assets

-ReCAL separates media assets and educational design from the runtime. - existing CAL programs disaggregated to release assets for reuse ~ 100 assets per program.

Project funded by The Lord Dowding Fund

ReCAL Stage 2 - Managing the assets

•Assets stored in digital repositories•Each asset catalogued into a database•Metadata is attached to enable browse & search•Assets then available for use in multiple CAL’s

ReCAL Stage 3 – Authoring tools to enable sequencing of learning

•External parameter files (XML) dictate the page sequence and the content delivered to the user.

•Different templates can be used to build the assets into each page:

T1 - TitleT2 - Image &TextT3 - data traceT4 - MCQ

ReCAL Stage 4 – dynamic CAL creation

- A runtime player (Flash, Labyrinth) reads in XML parameter files

-Runtime player draws down assets dynamically from repository

-CAL program is created dynamically

ReCAL dynamic CAL creation

Content authoring - future

• Teacher selects objects from repository• Uses simple authoring tools to create new CAL

Thank you for listening

David Dewhurst

e-mail d.dewhurst@ed.ac.ukLearning Technology www.lts.mvm.ed.ac.uk