Author: Michael Begg, michael.begg@ed.ac.uk

Author: David Dewhurst, d.dewhurst@ed.ac.uk

Author: Mark Eisler, mark.eisler@ed.ac.uk

JISC e-Learning Activity Area: Technology-enhanced Learning Environments

Higher Education Academy Subject Centre: Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine

This case study illustrates...use of specialist software, an effect on learning, an effect on student personal development, student satisfaction with e-learning, innovation in learning and teaching, an influence on educational research, staff satisfaction with e-learning, staff personal development, use of resources, management of learning assets

Tangible Benefits

What tangible benefits did this e-learning approach produce?

Significant improvement in student satisfaction with the learning process:

• Student (verbal) feedback (as recorded on minidisk) confirms that Labyrinth offers a learning experience unlike any other - and that this in itself is a positive outcome in their opinion. They suggest that the activity of establishing scenarios featuring characters with a variety of decision points and possible variations of direction to be taken through scenarios presented them with something close to what they imagine professional practice might be like. It, in short, forced them to think like professionals rather than students which, they suggest from their point of view of students very close to graduating, is no bad thing

Significant improvement in staff satisfaction with, and enthusiasm for, e-learning:

• This activity resulted in staff satisfaction in that the exercise was enjoyed and valued by the students who fed back their appreciation. It also assisted the staff to understand better some of the processes involved in synthesising key diagnostic and case management information from a case scenario and vice versa.

Significant improvement in staff's ability to deliver e-learning and any actual savings in terms of costs, time and resources:

• It is a notable feature of this activity that it is the students who effectively author their own learning activities and to do this requires consolidation of existing knowledge, learning new knowledge, applying knowledge to a virtual representation of a real world scenario, better understanding of the learning process and reflection on veterinary practice. Direct staff engagement with the activity is limited largely to the opening familiarising session and the closing presentation/assessment session. Staff are contactable by email to address any queries either technological or pedagogical in nature but in fact this has not generated any significant amount of extra work. The authoring and delivery environment is free for use to all teaching staff in the College and so the innovation in approach is not balanced by any consequential balancing financial outlay.

VP scenarios, once created and quality assured through the tutor assessment process, become available for use by the student community as learning resources. Participation of staff in this activity helps them understand better the principles of VP authoring - what makes a successful (in terms of learning outcome) and engaging (in terms of stimulating and motivating independent student learning) VP.

There are also tangible benefits to students in terms of personal development - IT skills, group working, communication skills, etc and to staff in terms of engagement with innovative teaching methods.

No special software is required for the creation of cases as the tools are all web-based and user authenticated. This meant that students could access their work as and when they wanted so long as they had internet access.

Did implementation of this e-learning approach have any disadvantages or drawbacks?

The students were required to spend time learning the basics of the Labyrinth authoring and delivery platform before being able to develop their own virtual patient scenario. However the overall benefit of the exercise to the students more than compensated for the time cost involved.

How did this e-learning approach accord with or differ from any relevant departmental and/or institutional strategies?

This approach has been used for two years and will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. It is pedagogically effective, integrates well with the local VLE system and both staff and students enjoy the activity and the artefacts produced by that activity. This group-centred learning activity is likely to be transferred to other educational programmes in the College.