Information technology use in healthcare education has become a popular medium of instruction. One of the medium of instruction is video assisted learning (VAL). The use of VAL as an instructional method in the teaching and learning of emergency skills is not new. However, there are lack of studies on the perception of using this method in learning emergency skills. This qualitative study involved four focused discussion groups following a VAL instruction on emergency skills. A total of 20 paramedics were divided into four groups. They were involved in a focussed discussion after a VAL instruction session. Findings reveal that the paramedics perceived three major themes which were categorized as : i) advantages of video as teaching tool, ii) barrier in using video as a teaching tool; and iii) suggestions on using video as teaching tool. The findings indicate that the paramedics perceived VAL as a potential tool for learning emergency skills. However, they suggested the language of instruction should be in their mother tongue for better understanding. This implies that using English language has disadvantage in technology enhanced learning for better understanding.
Computer-Assisted Instruction

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research is to evaluate whether quizzes using moodle are useful for academic achievement in a medical English class and to introduce moodle to educators based on the author's teaching experience. METHODS: After a final examination in a medical English class, the author surveyed (scale of 1 low to 5 high) the degree of satisfaction of students and the usefulness of quizzes provided on the author's homepage using moodle. Students had been recommended to solve the quizzes on the homepage voluntarily. The author analyzed statistical differences of the final examination scores between the students who completed the quizzes and those who did not. RESULTS: A total of 59 students completed the survey (collection rate=81.9%). On the question of satisfaction about the medical English class and the question of usefulness of quizzes, scores of mean, maximum, and minimum were 4.29 (SD=0.56), 5, and 3, and 4.03 (SD=0.72), 5, and 2, respectively. Statistically significant differences in the final examination scores were observed between the students who completed quizzes and those who did not. CONCLUSION: A tool for students' self-directed study is needed for improving academic achievement. In particular, various educational programs and environments provided by moodle are thought to be very useful. The quizzes the author made with moodle were very effective in the aspect of achievement.
Achievement ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Educational Measurement ; Humans ; Programmed Instruction as Topic

Virtual reality is the multi-dimensional sensorial environment produced by the computer, Users can play a part in this virtual environment by particular tools. This technology, possessing the characteristics of being lifelike, interactive and imaginative, plays more and more important part in the medical field. For example, in medical training, in physical and psychological treatments, this technology is of great value.
Computer Simulation ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; General Surgery ; education ; methods ; Humans ; Surgery, Computer-Assisted ; User-Computer Interface

A wide range of e-learning modalities are widely integrated in medical education. However, some of the key questions related to the role of e-learning remain unanswered, such as (1) what is an effective approach to integrating technology into pre-clinical vs. clinical training?; (2) what evidence exists regarding the type and format of e-learning technology suitable for medical specialties and clinical settings?; (3) which design features are known to be effective in designing on-line patient simulation cases, tutorials, or clinical exams?; and (4) what guidelines exist for determining an appropriate blend of instructional strategies, including on-line learning, face-to-face instruction, and performance-based skill practices? Based on the existing literature and a variety of e-learning examples of synchronous learning tools and simulation technology, this paper addresses the following three questions: (1) what is the current trend of e-learning in medical education?; (2) what do we know about the effective use of e-learning?; and (3) what is the role of e-learning in facilitating newly emerging competency-based training? As e-learning continues to be widely integrated in training future physicians, it is critical that our efforts in conducting evaluative studies should target specific e-learning features that can best mediate intended learning goals and objectives. Without an evolving knowledge base on how best to design e-learning applications, the gap between what we know about technology use and how we deploy e-learning in training settings will continue to widen.
Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Education, Medical* ; Knowledge Bases ; Learning ; Patient Simulation

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a vital signs e-book for undergraduate student nurses and evaluate the content, system and student satisfaction. METHOD: This study was done in three stages, the development of a vital signs e-book, implementation and evaluation. The subjects were 73 undergraduate student nurses in Y university. RESULT: Thirty one learning objectives were used to create the contents. A set of 5 chapters and 18 subsections were defined after validation from nurse educators. The e-book is available at http://123.134.207.23/ebook/vitalsigns. Analysis of the questionnaires showed a mean score for content, system and students satisfaction of 3.17 +/- .73, 3.11 +/-.79, and 2.96 +/-.74 respectively out of a possible 4 points. CONCLUSION: Nurse educators should provide quality and effective web-based courses that meet undergraduate student nurses' learning needs and they should incorporate web-based learning into traditional teaching to meet the demands of nursing education.
Respiration ; Pulse ; *Physical Examination ; *Internet ; *Education, Nursing ; *Computer-Assisted Instruction

PUPPOSE: The research purposes analyzed the study participation and lecture evaluation of applicants in the cyber hospice specialist education course to find problems of nurse education application on the web. METHOD: Study participants were 125 nurses for participation and 68nurses for lecture evaluation. The data was analysed by descriptive statistics. RESULT: The results obtained from this study were as follows 1) The residence distribution of study participants was spread out across the nation. Equal distribution of education was accomplished without a difference among provinces. 2) The average study duration in the study participation was about one hour and a quarter minutes a week, and number of access to lecture notes was 65.8 times. But in a discussion room and a cooperative room, the system using rate was very low, so we considered the idea to come up with a more effective application way. 3) The participant's lecture evaluation of cyber education were generally satisfied about the quality of lecture, time, contents etc. CONCLUSION: This study shows the possible implication for nursing fields using a web-based learning program for reeducation in a variety of fields, so nursing cyber application can be considered to come up with this more effective method.
Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Education ; Hospices* ; Learning ; Nursing ; Specialization*

OBJECTIVETo establish a new visual educational system of virtual reality for clinical dentistry based on world wide web (WWW) webpage in order to provide more three-dimensional multimedia resources to dental students and an online three-dimensional consulting system for patients.

METHODSBased on computer graphics and three-dimensional webpage technologies, the software of 3Dsmax and Webmax were adopted in the system development. In the Windows environment, the architecture of whole system was established step by step, including three-dimensional model construction, three-dimensional scene setup, transplanting three-dimensional scene into webpage, reediting the virtual scene, realization of interactions within the webpage, initial test, and necessary adjustment.

RESULTSFive cases of three-dimensional interactive webpage for clinical dentistry were completed. The three-dimensional interactive webpage could be accessible through web browser on personal computer, and users could interact with the webpage through rotating, panning and zooming the virtual scene.

CONCLUSIONSIt is technically feasible to implement the visual educational system of virtual reality for clinical dentistry based on WWW webpage. Information related to clinical dentistry can be transmitted properly, visually and interactively through three-dimensional webpage.

Computer-Assisted Instruction ; methods ; Internet ; Oral Medicine ; education ; Software

Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Education, Medical ; Internet ; Language ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

BACKGROUNDThe need to develop new methods of surgical training combined with advances in computing has led to the development of virtual reality surgical simulators. The PERC Mentor(TM) is designed to train the user in percutaneous renal collecting system access puncture. This study aimed to validate the use of this kind of simulator, in percutaneous renal access training.

METHODSTwenty-one urologists were enrolled as trainees to learn a fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal accessing technique. An assigned percutaneous renal access procedure was immediately performed on the PERC Mentor(TM) after watching instruction video and an analog operation. Objective parameters were recorded by the simulator and subjective global rating scale (GRS) score were determined. Simulation training followed and consisted of 2 hours daily training sessions for 2 consecutive days. Twenty-four hours after the training session, trainees were evaluated performing the same procedure. The post-training evaluation was compared to the evaluation of the initial attempt.

RESULTSDuring the initial attempt, none of the trainees could complete the appointed procedure due to the lack of experience in fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal access. After the short-term training, all trainees were able to independently complete the procedure. Of the 21 trainees, 10 had primitive experience in ultrasound-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Trainees were thus categorized into the group of primitive experience and inexperience. The total operating time and amount of contrast material used were significantly lower in the group of primitive experience versus the inexperience group (P = 0.03 and 0.02, respectively).

CONCLUSIONSThe training on the virtual reality simulator, PERC Mentor(TM), can help trainees with no previous experience of fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal access to complete the virtual manipulation of the procedure independently. This virtual reality simulator may become an important training and evaluation tool in teaching fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous renal access.

Adult ; Computer Simulation ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; Fluoroscopy ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Urologic Surgical Procedures ; education ; Urology ; education ; User-Computer Interface

Computer Simulation ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; methods ; Dental Models ; Humans ; Oral Surgical Procedures ; education ; Orthognathic Surgical Procedures ; education ; User-Computer Interface