Abstract:

Today, medical healthcare professionals are under the pressure to adopt advanced learning methodologies such as continued medical education, self-directed learning, and technology enhanced learning due to the need for permanent knowledge improvement. Although the physician practicing at major medical centre usually has no problem obtaining the required training, physicians who practice in rural areas or other more isolated locations may face considerable obstacles.

Virtual environments prove their capability for teaching and learning in different fields of education and Simulated Linked Object Oriented Learning environment (Sloodle) is one of the most promising one. Sloodle presents integration of Second Life virtual world with Moodle LSM. It is used for the purpose of healthcare education, concerning simulation in emergency department where student can see patient’s history, ask questions, make physical examination of the patient, plan the diagnosis and the treatment. However, after the completion of medical school and formal residency training, medical education does not stop, and it has become obligatory for physicians to be lifelong learners. Field of orthopedics is no exception. Given that we haven’t found any example concerning Sloodle application in the field of orthopedics, we presented new approach of training it this area.

In order to enable interns working in the field of clinical and pre-clinical practice to have opportunities for practice and lifelong learning, “Spine – functions and deformities” Sloodle medical course is created. The course consists of two main parts: Moodle course and Second Life 3D classroom. The topics within Moodle site are designed to systematically guide users through learning materials. 3D classroom is set within Second Life (SL), and its organizational structure is somewhat different from topics within Moodle. Main differences lie in interns’ activities that are grouped at particular 3D classroom floors. There are five floors and each one contains particular activities that are connected to adequate resources within Moodle site. Since physician have to practice with vertebrae and spine models, which are very complex, detailed implementation process of 3D models is explained.

Since SL has limited capabilities for modelling objects because of the low geometric complexity supported and the lack of a surface mesh, complex vertebrae models are first externally developed in 3D modelling environments, such as Solid works and CATIA, and further adjusted and imported into SL. Additional enhancement of models’ interactivity is achieved with Linden Scripting Language. LSL functions are used to add functionalities to vertebrae models that users are working with. Interactivity allows physicians to better understand 3D models and to practice with models through virtual assessment. Example of virtual assessment is also given in the paper.

The importance of proposed approach is reflected in innovation of existing course, as well as providing users with opportunity to work with complex 3D models that are often not available in real world practice. Future work will be related to external course evaluation and its further enhancement.

Keywords:

e-learning, virtual environments, Second Life, Sloodle, medical education, 3D models.