mLearning Authoring Platform for the School of Medicine

CORTEX has released a first working-prototype in efforts to acommodate mobile access to self-directed learning in the School. The platform combines latest mobile development languages such as HTML5 and jQuery for mobile devices. The present version (1.0.0) features:

• Adapts to any screen resolution
• Adapts to screen rotation
• Table of contents
• Back/forward navigation
• Smart screen-responsive image resizing
• 'Collapsible' content
• Info page

The next prototype aims to feature:

• True/false formative assessment
• Multiple-answer formative assessment
• Improved page loading speed

Click here for a sneak preview.
Please feel free to leave comments/suggestions. All feedback is greatly appreciated and will be used to shape future development!

The School of Medicine e-learning team.

Actor Release Form

During the development of educational resources it is common, particularly within medical education, to employ actors - this includes patients who have agreed to a recording outside of the course of their treatment.

Prior to starting any recordings, actors should be provided with full details of what the recording will entail and how the recording will be used. The “actor” should then be asked to sign the consent portion of the Actor Release form to confirm they are happy to partake in the recording.

Where an actor is used within a recording, the actor, by law, retains copyright for their performance. To ensure Cardiff University retains the right to use the materials we produce, it is vital that all actors are asked to sign a Actor Release Form for their part in the recording.

The Actor Release Form is designed to record evidence that the media you are using has been granted for such use.

Before completing the form, please ensure you are familiar with the MEDIC e-learning Consent Policy.

Standard Precautions / Personal Protective Equipment

‘Standard precautions [formerly called universal precautions] are meant to reduce the risk of transmission of pathogens from both recognized and unrecognized sources. They are the basic level of infection control precautions which are used in the care of all patients’ (WHO 2007).

The aim of this module is to facilitate learning regarding the reasons for standard precautions and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in healthcare.

Clinical Skills

• Carole Loveridge (Lecturer in Women’s Health)

Launch this module

Copyright Consent Registration Form

Modern teaching practices often make extensive use of creative media to enhance the information offered to students. However, such creative media (e.g. photographs, images, videos, audio, diagrams etc.) can be expensive to produce and it can be very tempting to download something from the Internet, or copy something from a book, to avoid the need to create media from scratch.

When obtaining material (for example; images, video, articles of text), the first step is to determine whether permission has been granted for use within education. If there is no clear indication then appropriate steps should be taken to obtain permission from wherever the material has been sourced. The Copyright Consent Registration Form is designed to record evidence that the media you are using has been granted for such use.  

Before completing the form, please ensure you are familiar with the MEDIC e-learning Copyright Guidelines. 

The Clinical Skills Centre

About the Clinical Skills Centre
The Clinical Skills Centre is located on the third floor of the Cochrane building, on the Heath Park Campus. The skills centre is equipped with realistic, anatomically correct models to assist in the teaching and practise of a wide range of procedural clinical skills. Teaching currently takes place in Year 2, and Year 3, with a range of practical skills being taught in a relaxed and student centred approach to learning. Small groups of students are led by experienced tutors, many from the Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, and formatively assessed following the practical element of the session.

Self-directed Study
Students are required to access on line e-learning modules prior to attending timetables clinical skills teaching. These attractive, easy to follow modules provide key theoretical components of the clinical procedure, prior to the student attending the practical session. The e-learning modules are found within the ‘Clinical Skills Resources’ section of Learning Central (requires login).

Clinical Skills Modules

Revision Sessions
Revision sessions are often made available to students. These sessions are particularly useful to students approaching exams, or for those who may require a little more time to practise a skill, before attempting a supervised procedure in the Clinical setting. Access to the self booking system for revision sessions is found within the ‘Clinical Skills’ section of Learning Central. Dates will be posted nearer exam time, or when enough students request a session. We are currently in the process of setting up a Self-Directed clinical skills area in Ty Dewi Sant.

Please e-mail clinical skills manager/tutor Sian Williams if you require further information.

< About Sian Williams

Links
CETL Clinical Skills Video Tutorials
Clinical Skills Online (St. George's University)

Clinical Skills Laboratories Health and Safety Brief
Year 2 Student guide to Practical Skills Teaching 2011-2012
Year 3 Student guide to Practical Skills Teaching 2011-2012

Blood Glucose Monitoring & Sliding Scale

A new clinical skills module on the subject of blood glucose monitoring and sliding scale is now available for review via CORTEX. Key topics in the module include use of insulin sliding scale in the acute care setting and sampling capillary blood using a glucometer.

Clinical Skills

• Sian Williams (Clinical Skills Tutor/Manager)
• Professor Aidan Byrne (Interim Director of Clinical Skills & Simulation)

Launch this module

CORTEX Self-Directed Learning

CORTEX will gradually catalogue all existing self-paced and virtual patient modules. Existing modules and tutorials are currently located within Cardiff Learning Central and linked to within specific year groups and enrolled programmes of study. CORTEX intends to make these more widely available and searchable by their keywords within this site, for example, specific learning objectives or subject areas. The e-learning team welcome all comments and opinions on this activity.

Selecting & Integrating Media in eLearning

Abstract
When considering the types of media to include in the module, it is important to ensure that the learner is not being overloaded or overwhelmed to the point of distraction from the intended level of engagement or from the learning objectives themselves, therefore it is important to keep use of different media (e.g. video, audio, hi-fidelity animation) in context, and strictly fit for purpose.

The purpose of this document is to analyse each type of computer-based media and explore their strengths and weaknesses when used within self-paced eLearning.

Text
Pros

• We read quickly
• Learners read at their own pace
• Text is flexible and searchable
• Text is easy to modify
• Text is portable

Cons

• English may be a second language
• Content may require graphic illustration

 Images Graphics & Diagrams
Pros

• No literacy skills required to interpret an image
• Highly applicable to medicine
• Simplifies, highlights and illustrates a principal, concept or process
• Graphics and icons provide associative markers for content
• Transfers information easily through charts and diagrams

Cons

• Copyright issues
• Awkward to update

 Animation & Animated Sequences
Pros

• Effectively reinforces points in a sequence or process
• Effectively transfers information about a particular system, sequence or process which static media (e.g. text or images) cannot

Cons

• Learners cannot view at their own pace
• Lengthy sequences cannot be remembered as easily as static versions
• Requires advanced skills
• Requires longer development time
• Awkward to update

Audio
Pros

• Few learners cannot hear (more cannot read)
• Points can be emphasised or transferred differently through speech
• Good for learners with English as a second language
• Can be used widely on portable devices such as iPods or mobile phones

Cons

• Learners do not listen at their own pace
• Requires higher level of skill to produce
• Awkward to modify or update

Virtual Patients at Cardiff; Literature Review Abstract

Purpose
After developing a small number of experimental Virtual Patients as optional components in the undergraduate curriculum and having received very favourable feedback from students about them the School now needs to undertake a more comprehensive review of virtual patients. The review intends to uncover the pedagogic underpinnings for effective virtual patient delivery and help CU staff identify areas of the medical curriculum where they would be best suited.

Method
A literature review of how both national and international medical teaching institutions have reported the effectiveness of their VP implementation, with particular focus on elements of the educational theories which have best enhanced the intended transferable learning aspects. The results were then used with the intention of helping staff identify areas of the undergraduate curriculum where VP’s would be best suited, and to what degree they can be integrated into core teaching.

Results
Results indicated a wide variance of the ways in which VPs were integrated into core medical teaching but with common theme of pedagogic design prinicpals which were key to the effectiveness of preparing the student for ‘real’ patient encounters; authenticity was seen as a key enabling factor for this.

Conclusion
It was found that the development of competence in clinical reasoning was a key target for any VP; authenticity of clinical events and patient dialogue facilitated by appropriate media being a dominant factor in preparing the student for real patient interaction, particularly in exercising social and communication skills. VP’s can be integrated as a focal subject for use within lectures or seminars, or used as a self-directed study aid, accessed externally to core teaching; the degree of its integration should be left to the discretion of the curriculum leads.

Virtual Patients at Cardiff; A Review

Virtual Patients are computer-based simulations of fictitious patients presenting with a complaint. The complaint is analysed by the learner and encourages thinking processes surrounding history taking, examination, diagnosis, treatment and discharge, without the obvious risks associated with a student treating a real patient case. The cases can focus on important common condition but can also be used to cover important conditions that it may be difficult for students to gain experience of, such as domestic abuse.

Main Points...

• Allows self-directed learning opportunities
• Narrative/didactic style of delivery for earlier years students
• Branched/exploratory style of learning for later years where knowledge can be applied
• Focus is on applying clinical knowledge to diagnostic thinking and management
• Cognitive realism - that is that the challenge posed to the learner seems real - is more important than visual realism - that is that real photos or video clips are used
• Communication/social skills for patient dialogue can be exercised Opportunity to familiarise with patient dialogue
• Continual focus on learning objectives is key for maintaining relevance
• Regular self-assessment opportunities allows the learner to evaluate their own progress
• Promotion of clinical reasoning is arguably the most important distinguishing feature of VP delivery and purpose

Read more about the comprehensive literature review conducted at Cardiff University School of Medicine...

Access the full literature review here.

ECG Recording

A Clinical Skills module is now available on Learning Central. The module details how to record a full, detailed tracing of the electrical activity of the heart, using an ECG (electrocardiograph) machine recorder.

Clinical Skills

• Dawn Lau

Launch this module