Abstract:

Since 2015-16, De Montfort University (DMU, UK) is leading the development of a complete open-access virtual package, named e-Parasitology© (http://parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/), in collaboration with the Spanish Universities of Alcalá, CEU-San Pablo, Complutense and Miguel Hernández de Elche, for the teaching/learning of medical parasitology. e-Parasitology© comes with different virtual resources (laboratory, microscope, case study), specially designed for students with different needs, which have been developed following the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), i.e the virtual environment provides multiple pathways of learning, means to demonstrate knowledge and motivation to students.
Sexually transmitted parasites (STPs), which include the emerging protozoan parasites of Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia intestinalis, Cryptosporidium spp., Trichomonas vaginalis, and different ectoparasites that can be transmitted by human contact, specially Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis, are becoming a public health concern in Europe and developed countries due to the significant rise of cases affecting different groups of the population and following the implementation of lockdown measures following the 2019-23 COVID-19 pandemic. However, the full study or study of the different routes of infections of these parasites is not done at the same level of detail across medical/healthcare European Higher Education Institutions/ programmes. To tackle this, the e-Pararasitology© team has created the following resources:
a) Theoretical module: e-learning units of the different STPs indicated. Each unit follows a similar user-friendly scaffolding with formative assessments and mini-games to facilitate engagement and self-learning. These units are linked with virtual clinical slides through the virtual microscope, so the user can become familiar with the features of these parasites for their correct identification and diagnosis.
b) Virtual laboratory: e-learning units on the specific cultivation of T. vaginalis and mammalian cells, pivotal for the teaching and learning of laboratory competences for the study and diagnosis of human parasite diseases.
c) Virtual clinical case study: a specific medical case study for learning diagnosis and management of a patient infected with E. histolytica as a STP.

We have been testing the specific E. histolytica resources with BSc Biomedical Science DMU students enrolled in the final year module of Medical Microbiology since 2019/20 to the current, 2022/23, academic course. Consistently, students have reported learning the clinical and pathological characteristics of E. histolytica, pivotal for diagnosis of infections. Moreover, students reported the learning of treatment and prevention strategies against E. histolytica infections, which will aid tackling of increasing infections in developing countries. Owing to the success recorded since 2019, our international team has developed two new e-learning units for the study of G. intestinalis and S. scabiei var. hominis, which embrace the UDL ethos and include different formative assessments and mini-games to facilitate self-learning. In this communication we describe the different strategies followed to develop these new resources available in the e-Parasitology© package and how we will test them. Future developments include the development of a clinical case study or a mini-game built in an app to tackle the increasing rise of scabies recorded in post-COVID Europe.

Keywords:

E-Parasitology, virtual learning, parasitology education, sexually transmitted parasites.