Interactive online module on liver pathology using immersive technologies

In Medicine teaching, I have seen students struggle with simple concepts probably because the method of teaching does not align with the students learning style. Not all students learn best by listening to teachers talk in the class. This is the key message highlighted in my most cited medical education research article published in BMC Medical Education. Following on from this work, in 2019, I lead the development of an online module on liver pathology with 3D animations, videos, voice clips, CT image reconstructions of intra-abdominal organs plus interactive case studies on liver diseases, for medical undergraduates studying in Phase 1 (~500 students per year). This caters to students with different learning styles (e.g. visual, auditory, kinaesthetic). The difficulty in using kinaesthetic learning in an online module was partially overcome by three interactive case studies which mimicked real-life scenarios (alcoholic hepatitis, viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis). Peer feedback from course conveners was very good, and student feedback obtained with a brief questionnaire indicated a perceived improvement of knowledge after completing the module (from 3.93 pre-lesson to 7.04 post-lesson on a likert scale scored from 1-10). This demonstrates my capacity to translate the findings of educational research to improve teaching in the classroom. The Interactive module can be accessed here.

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