A virtual learning environment for

orthopaedic surgeons

G. Conole, T Miles-Board, C Bailey, L Carr, Q Gee, S Grange, W Hall, G Power, , A Woukeu and G Wills

University of Southampton

EdMedia conference, Montreal, 27th June – 2nd July 2005

Outline

• Description of project

• Inherent assumptions

• Demonstration of key features

• Discussion

Description

• Learning environment to support CPD for orthopaedic surgeons across Europe

• Partners in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and UK

Pedagogical assumptions

• General principles– Learning situated and authentic– Learners adopting an active and constructive approach

• Specifics– Nature of orthopaedic knowledge, relationship between

theoretical and pragmatic surgical concepts– Rigour and validation requirements – Importance of ‘apprenticeship’– Need for constant updating of both procedural and

declarative knowledge– Learners have limited time and computer expertise– The need to tailor: specialist knowledge base varies

according to experience and application

The VOU system

• Components– Multimedia educational modules– A virtual classroom environment – A virtual observatory– A dynamic review journal (DRJ)– Simulations

Pedagogy, tools and resources

PedagogyProblem-based Collaboration

ResourcesProblem Cases

HandbookDRJ

ToolsMultimedia Library

Communication

Higher Surgical trainees

• Independent and lifelong learners• Mobile population working in hospitals

in the Wessex Region• They keep a logbook of all activities

undertaken• Not co-located with tutors• Continuing Professional Development

is an essential part of clinical professionals

The VOU Infrastructure

• The Virtual Orthopaedic University (VOU) – An infrastructure for clinicians to use

computer-assisted surgical tools with dedicated interactive media

– Underpinned by the use of ontological hypertext

– Ontologies are used to explicitly specify domain (i.e. resources) knowledge for sharing, reuse & reasoning

Syllabus Ontology

• By providing the online educational contracts aim to provide more than just a replication of the paper-based system

• Mapping of the educational contract onto the personal profile of the individual provides a personalised route through the system in accordance with clinical role

• Ontology, is that it can be used to provided multiple perspectives on the syllabus

• Can view the syllabus from the perspective of; user category, clinical skills, trauma, elective, etc

Ontology for VOU learning agreements

On-line Learning Agreement

• The Individual Learning Agreement (ILA) system provides a way of:– clinical tutor and their student to agree

upon a commonly defined subsection of the curriculum

– using a conversational and discursive process

On-line Learning Agreement

• The resulting ILA provides:– a personalised training syllabus which

the tutee themselves have agreed upon within a specified timescale

– defining those aspects of the curriculum which the convenor deems necessary to the student’s continual training

Construction of an ILA

• When the tutor creates an ILA, they specify the intended recipient and expected completion date

• Trough the ontology– system can prompt the tutor with information

related to the tutee (current level of education, their hospital & surgical consultants)

– system highlights aspects of the ontology that are applicable to the student’s current educational level

– the ontology and the convenor’s own personal knowledge combine to allow an informed selection of curriculum items

Construction of an ILA

Tutees & tutors view• Once the tutor has created the ILA it is then

presented to the student for confirmation• The student can look though the ILA and has the

option of accepting or rejecting any part of the chosen syllabus

• When both the student and tutor confirm the ILA it then becomes an agreement between the two

• Now, for the duration of the agreement, as the tutee builds up their own personal logbook of cases, they can use the ILA to mark off selected items from the curriculum and provide a reference to the logbook case that demonstrates the practice

• At any time the tutor can view the student’s progress and examine these logbook entries

Tutee view of an ILA

Tutor’s view of the same ILA

Using the system

• Steps in the process– Mapping of curricula to pedagogical

approaches – underpinning structure– Identification of teaching and learning

methods and resources – learning agreement

– Delivery – using DRJ, case studies, etc– Evaluation – update of portfolio

Syllabus Curriculum Deanary requirements

Tutor’s toolkit

Student Modulescompleted

Personalprofile

Log book

Learningagreement

Learningoutcomes

Recommendedreading

Selected problem cases

Resourcelayer

Patient cases

Problembased

Surgicalhandbooks

DynamicReview journal

Virtualobservatory

Students can view resources as part of a learningagreement in negotiation with tutor or directly

Demonstrations

• Library• Educational management• Case studies• Dynamic review journal• Discussion• Upload

Conclusions

• Architecture designed to be used in a variety of ways to support different types and levels of users and syllabi

• Maximises the relationship between different user groups, syllabi and clinical skills

• Use of a ontological hypermedia as the backbone for our framework allows the building of sophisticated web-based educational environment that provides more effective ways of clustering, navigating and viewing the syllabus

Conclusion

• Maps pedagogical approaches to tools and resources

• Flexible with a number of potential routes through

• Underpinned by a surgical ontology• Incorporates novel tools like the DRJ• Components could be adapted for

other potential uses

A virtual learning environment for

orthopaedic surgeons

G. Conole, T Miles-Board, C Bailey, L Carr, Q Gee, S Grange, W Hall, G Power, , A Woukeu and G Wills

University of Southampton

EdMedia conference, Montreal, 27th June – 2nd July 2005