Transforming Online Education With Technology-Supported Experiential Learning

Session

Description: As more and more continuing education for healthcare professionals has moved online, it has created the question: how do we continue to enhance this education and engage our learners? Experiential learning is one answer. Experiential learning can transform and enhance teaching-learning transaction. It can create a hands-on active learning environment, allow learners to visualize and experience the invisible, and facilitate knowledge translation into practice. This session is designed to present the current possibilities in experiential learning for online education and to also elaborate on what the future might hold. The presenters will demonstrate and discuss three examples of experiential learning, including (1) an interactive matching exercise, (2) personalized cases, and (3) an augmented reality (AR) app. The presenters will also formulate lessons learned using technologies in teaching complicated content and comment on issues related to technology limitations, new skills required of presenters, and setting appropriate expectations for learners. The participants will be invited to share their experiences, ask questions, and discuss the future of interactive and immersive educational strategies in the field of continuing professional development (CPD).
The first example was called the Matching Exercise on Measuring Disease Activity and Treatment Outcomes in Lupus. It involved identifying and interacting with the key features of various measures, scores, and indices that are used to assess disease activity, damage, and treatment outcomes in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. It was the part of an enduring educational activity, in which 770 learners participated. 90% of 156 evaluation respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the matching exercise enhanced their learning experience. Responses to a clinical vignette question related to lupus assessment showed improvement from pretest 10% (N=747) to posttest 44% (N=181). Another clinical vignette question and a knowledge-based question related to the content covered in the matching exercise were answered correctly post-activity by 76% (N=181) and 90% (N=180), correspondingly. 64% of 162 evaluation respondents planned to make changes in practice, and 76% of 50 follow-up respondents fully or partially implemented changes in practice.
 
The two other examples, the personalized case studies and the AR app, were both incorporated into two enduring activities on psoriatic arthritis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the personalized case studies, learners built their cases by choosing patient characteristics, a chief complaint, and a comorbidity. Each case led learners through a clinical decision and provided them with written feedback about their decision. A total of 15 unique case combinations could be created, each case highlighting educational teaching points in a unique way. The ImmerseRx: Psoriatic Arthritis AR app showed the key inflammatory pathways driving psoriatic arthritis, along with the mechanisms of action behind the targeted therapies for treating it. This app could be played in two different modes—one for healthcare providers and the other for patients. The app was available for learners to download. The presenters demonstrated how to use the app and used it as a teaching aid to present the content.  
 
At the time of preparing this abstract, a total of 993 learners participated in the two activities on psoriatic arthritis that included the personalized cases and the AR app. Analysis of pre/posttest results demonstrated that the personalized cases contributed to improved competence related to two of the learning objectives for the initiative: pretest 44% vs. posttest 87% for one of the learning objectives; and pretest 31% vs. posttest 81% for another learning objective(63-328 responses). The AR App contributed to improved knowledge related to two other learning objectives: pretest 18% vs. posttest 83% for one learning objective and pretest 50% vs. posttest 88% for another learning objective (64-298 responses). 72% of 130 evaluation respondents planned to make changes in practice; 20% of 46 evaluation respondents planned to use the AR app; and 81% of 75 follow-up respondents fully or partially implemented changes in practice.
 
Participants will take away ideas for how different technology solutions can be merged with the best practices in CPD to create a unique and engaging learning environment.Innovation: This session will focus on innovative, technology-supported approaches to experiential learning, ranging from interactive (eg, the matching exercise), to highly customized (eg, personalized cases), and to immersive (eg, AR app). Examples of innovations both within CME/CPD and in other industries will be used to trigger a discussion about new generations of educational technologies in a rapidly evolving digital space.