Training Methodologies
Pedagogical objectives
- To encourage Problem-based learning: The defining characteristics Problem-based learning (PBL) are: (a) learning is driven by messy, open-ended problems, (b) students work in small collaborative groups, and (c) teachers are facilitators of learning. Accordingly, students are encouraged to take responsibility for their group and organize and direct the learning process with support from a tutor or instructor. Advocates of PBL claim it can be used to enhance content knowledge and foster the development of communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skills. [Hmelo-Silver, C. E. 2004, Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review, 16, 235-266.]
- To encourage experiential learning: Experiential education is the process of actively engaging students in an authentic experience that will have benefits and consequences. Students make discoveries and experiment with knowledge themselves instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others. Students also reflect on their experiences, thus developing new skills, new attitudes, and new theories or ways of thinking. [Kraft, D., & Sakofs, M. (Eds.) 1988, The theory of experiential education. Boulder, CO: Association for Experiential Education]
- To provide opportunities for self-paced learning at point of need.
Technological objectives
- To use secure, commercial, off-the-shelf, Web-based information dissemination services and learning management system services to maximize infrastructure robustness, minimize development time, and increase curriculum sustainability.
- To accelerate the integration of off-the-shelf, state-of-the-art Web-based collaborative applications and simulation technologies to augment the pedagogical value of our proposed courses and tabletop exercises.
- To develop a distance-learning curriculum that support self-directed, self-paced, exploratory learning through interactive simulations and support social learning through technologies ranging from threaded-discussion to Webconferencing.
- To augment face-to-face courses with interactive-learning content.
- To monitor student progress through the capture of data from quizzes and student interactions with simulated devices and in simulated environments.
Infrastructure
Our overriding strategy to implement the technical aspects of this program is to utilize industry-proven services rather than developing our own. This strategy is practical from a number of considerations.
- It is more likely that the infrastructure for this project will be robust and maintained regularly. All of our service and software providers are firmly established in their own niche markets. Based on our past experiences, such an approach minimizes cost in the long run without sacrificing quality and sustainability.
- This approach allows project personnel to focus on pedagogical aspects of the curriculum, its delivery and evaluation, thereby providing better opportunities for enhancing course quality.
- In our experience outsourcing services to industry specialists also reduces stress on academic staff during service downtimes partly because the service specialists are typically in a better position than academics to troubleshoot and bring their systems back up again at short notice.
- In many cases, outsourcing IT infrastructural services also comes with the benefit of having access to the latest versions of the services without having to invest in expensive upgrade processes.
- Most outsourced IT infrastructures have a well established multi-level support and user training system that cannot be replicated in-house without significant additional investments in personnel and equipment. On the flip side, the selection of service providers is not an easy process and needs to be lead by experienced in-house staff who are able to see through industry marketing strategies, are in synch with existing and emerging technologies, and have the skill to do hands on evaluations of the services that will be outsourced. A few of the important selection parameters that need not be missed are for example, the frequency of downtimes of the services, the infrastructure in place to deal with data security and privacy, and data back up guarantees. The bottom line is that we are currently in the midst of an evolution to what has been dubbed Web 2.0. And while there is a general tendency to outsource increasingly complex applications, it is important to do so only after completing an extensive evaluation.
Traditional classroom environment
One of the problems that have been found to reduce the effectiveness of emergency responders has been traced to communication barriers and the lack of standard emergency management practices. For example, the department of homeland security has recently encouraged the use of plain text instead of coded communications. This is because codes are agency specific. One of the solutions proposed to deal with such issues is to make it mandatory for emergency services to adopt a standardized approach to manage emergency situations, crises and disasters. The Institute of Emergency Management at the ISU Boise, an IBAPP partner, is already providing face to face National Incident Management System (NIMS), Incident Command System (ICS) and Hospital Emergency Incident Command System (HEICS) training to local agencies (Figure 8). One of the goals of IBAPP is not only to increase the reach of this training through distance learning methodologies but also to increase their effectiveness through simulation technologies. Figure 8 IBAPP staff attending a Face to face Training the trainer National Incident Management System class.
Distance Learning
Introduction
We have studied the effectiveness of commercial communication services to support both synchronous and asynchronous forms of interaction within the context of delivered course content. We are working in partnership with the Institute of Emergency Management ISU Boise to leverage their existing Learning Management System, the Idaho Preparedness Learning Management System (IPLMS), which is hosted and managed by Meridian Knowledge Solutions, Inc. At the level of text-based communication, the IPLMS can easily be configured to support searchable threaded-discussion lists for all the courses we provide. Discussion lists have proven very effective as a social learning medium where instructors can interact with students and students can support each other in their own time.
The Institute of Rural Health routinely uses higher end Tandberg based teleconferencing systems for weekly interactions between partners across Idaho and less frequently for Virtual Grand Rounds. However, this mode of teleconferencing has required significant investments both in equipment and bandwidth access. In order to provide teleconferencing opportunities for students from whatever bandwidth they have access to (minimum 28 kbps) and using minimum grade PC based equipment with a low cost noise cancellation microphone(~$20) and up web camera (~$19), we have expanded our spectrum of teleconferencing technologies to include web based conferencing tools.
Webconferencing
A number of IBAPP courses will involve live lectures and Webconferencing facilities to sustain two-way interactions. All the sessions will be recorded and warehoused so that this archive can be accessed at the convenience of the student. We evaluated a number of web conferencing solutions that included Macromedia Breeze™, WebEx™, Microsoft NetMeeting™ and Elluminate Live™. The selection criteria included their ability to adapt gracefully to a range of bandwidths including bandwidth as low as 28 kbps, their pricing schemes, their user interfaces, their ease of integration with Learning Management Systems, their ability to hold under heavy loads up to 500 concurrent users and the complexity of the required workflow for recording and archiving webconferencing sessions. Most webconferencing applications also provide desktop and application sharing functionalities, integrated polling and quiz management applications. In addition to providing courses where instructors will interact with students directly, the courses can also include PC based simulations that can run on the more power machines of the instructors and be accessed by students on lower end hardware from their homes. Our evaluations lead us to select Elluminate Live™ (Figure below) to support our webconferencing needs.
Elluminate Live™ webconferencing application with integrated desktop and application sharing functionality
Hybrid Distance Learning and Face 2 Face
Simulations
Training in a large scale massive virtual environment
Our attraction to virtual environments as a learning platform is that they provide opportunities for problem based learning and experiential learning.
We will be using a customizable massive online multiplayer environment SecondLife™ to host virtual table top exercises for the NIMS, ICS and HEICS courses. This is because of its relatively low access cost and its ability to handle dynamic content seamlessly (Figure 1). This environment is ideal for a large number of participants to role play disaster scenarios that are designed rapidly by non-programmers using menu driven tools. The SecondLife™ environment is poised to revolutionize the way virtual environments are created and used for training purposes. More information about our virtual training environment is available here.
Figure 1: Realistic looking and interactive content
The fidelity of a training environment often influences its effectiveness as a training tool. The SecondLife™ platform provides the necessary tools for content specialists to create realistic looking indoors and outdoors environments. It also provides tools for the creation of realistic looking avatars with realistic animations to represent the various professions involved in the training. All the stakeholders involved in a given scenario including victims and on-lookers can therefore be easily integrated (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Collaborative building of props to be used in virtual exercises
Object level scripting
Since the virtual environment allows object level scripting of behavior, it is possible not only to represent the look of devices (Figure 3) in the virtual environment, but also to simulate how they work. For example foldable beds, interactive Patient Controlled Analgesia pumps, ventilating machines, flyable helicopters and virtual operations room, can be developed so that they can used by the various professions involved in the training scenarios. The ability to program the behavior of virtual objects also facilitates the simulations of man made (accidental/intentional) or natural disasters. For example, the platform allows the building of virtual bombs (Figure 4) that can be set to explode and to lead to an unforeseen mass casualty event which will have to be dealt with by the personnel under training.
Figure 3: Hazmat and emergency response equipment
Figure 4: Potential for creating realistic engaging scenarios
It is well known that environmental conditions can play an important role in the success of rescue efforts. In that respect, SecondLife™ can allow simulations of realistic climatic conditions ranging from heavy rain, snow, high winds conditions to unstable terrain caused by earthquakes.
Two of the major underlying infrastructures that are required to enhance the degree of realism of the virtual environment are the physics engine and the particle engine. SecondLife™ is adequate on both counts. This environment also provides opportunities for streaming audio and video into and out of the virtual world. This functionality allows the setting up of video conferencing sessions within the virtual environment itself. Figure 5 depicts members of the IRH team testing the streaming of a talk by the Surgeon General rendered on a screen inside the virtual world.
Figure 5: Streaming of video into virtual environments
Avatar behavior custimizations
This environment supports avatar behavior customizations as well. This is important if the avatars need to have access to a palette of gestures necessary for increasing the believability of interactions or scenarios (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Effective role playing through controllable avatar gestures
Automated exercise data capture
The object level scripting environment of this platform enables data to be sent from local virtual world events to external applications. The communication facilities between events within the virtual environment and external applications can facilitate the integration of courses delivered inworld to an external Learning content management system. For example, data captured inside the virtual world can be sent automatically to an external database allowing such functionalities as automated student progress tracking.
Training using interactive manikins
Many face-to-face IBAPP courses will benefit from the integration of medical simulators such as interactive manikins or body parts. The ability to identify the effects of abnormal or normal skin reactions to biological agent exposure is a critical competency in bioterrorism awareness. An interactive course can include simulations to help students acquire this skill. For example, select face to face courses will integrate interactive manikins and body-part simulations that will replicate the effects of toxic agents/gases on the skin and on the central nervous system by producing realistic frothy, bodily fluids from tear ducts, nose, and mouth. Such an environment is likely to be more engaging and will provide better opportunities for learning and working within teams. We have selected the SimMan® from Laerdal® to support our training because it is already being used in a number of departments at ISU. SimMan® is a portable and advanced patient simulator for team training. It has realistic anatomy and clinical functionality and provides simulation-based education to challenge and test students’ clinical and decision-making skills during realistic patient care scenarios. This advanced manikin allows learners to practice the emergency treatment of patients (Figure 1).
Figure 1 An ISU nursing instructor demonstrating a medical procedure using the SimMan®
ISU has recently purchased the SimBaby® (Figure 2) which is a portable advanced interactive infant patient simulator for team training. Like the SimMan®, it has realistic anatomy and clinical functionality that enables simulation training.
All table-based templates have very strict parameters. If you drag or move any table borders, the table or cell will be "resized" incorrectly and will become set to a fixed size rather than the pre-designed fluid width. As you edit your pages and move or drag a border, immediately click on the "undo" button and then attempt your changes again.
Figure 2 The SimBaby®
To address the increasingly important goal for clinicians, first responders, and educators to be able to recognize, diagnose and treat the symptoms of bioterrorism attacks, we are procuring additional modules that will enhance the instrumented manikins that are also in use in the ISU Nursing department to increase their effectiveness in bioterrorism preparedness training. For example, The Laerdal Simulated Smallpox Module Set (Figure 3) provides opportunities for students to identify the effects of abnormal and normal skin reactions. The set also includes a blank deltoid pad for practice inoculation. These modules can be adapted with many Laerdal manikins that use deltoid injection pads like the SimMan®. Another example is the Laerdal Simulated Nuclear/biological/chemical training module that can replicate the effects of toxic gasses on the central nervous system by producing realistic, frothy, bodily fluids that emanate from tear ducts, mouth and nose (Figure 4).
Figure 3: Smallpox Module Set
Figure 4: Nuclear/biological/chemical training module
College of Technology SimMan Demonstration
Dave Pederson and The College of Technology Physician's Assistant program simulate a basic cardiac scenario on a high-fidelity manikin to demonstrate the usefulness of the manikan as a medical instruction tool during the Idaho Health Care Association Conference held at the Boise Center On The Grove on 07/19/2006.
Last Modified: 01/05/09 at 04:04:44 PM