Worldwide child abuse continues to be a major cause of death and disability. There are concerns regarding the ability of doctors to recognize and respond appropriately to concerns of child abuse, one of the main reasons for this is lack of education and training. However, it is a particularly difficult subject to teach as the vast majority of trainees get little if any exposure to cases of suspected child abuse.

We developed the first interactive Video based Virtual patient to teach trainees about their role in the management of suspected child abuse. The module consists of a series of interconnected video clips centred round a clinical case. It includes MCQs, picture quizzes, clinical notes, opportunities for guided reflection and clinical knowledge testing.

There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the Virtual Patient from over 200 undergraduate medical students, General Practice trainees, Postgraduate Paediatric Trainees and Academic staff throughout Ireland who have used our Virtual Patient to support their teaching and learning.

Michael Seery, DIT

This project involved the design, development, and implementation of ten pre-lecture resources to support novice learners in a Year 1 third level chemistry course. The project came about because previous years’ exam results showed that students who had no Leaving Certificate chemistry tended to under-perform when compared to students who did. Each pre-lecture resource, produced as an Articulate presentation, took up to five minutes to complete along with additional time required to complete a quiz, which provided answer specific feedback and a grade. Students enthusiastically engaged with the resources, enjoying the opportunity to obtain feedback on their learning. The nature of the lecture changed too, incorporating more discussion. Analysis of both semester test and module exam marks after implementing the resources demonstrated that the difference in marks observed in previous years due to prior knowledge had disappeared.

For the past two years I have been developing short videos for both “How To…” and “Problem-Solving” techniques for delivery to learners through the YouTube platform. A special channel has been set up in YouTube for this purpose. No specialist skills are required to create the videos – just knowledge of everyday tools readily available to most educators. These started out as videos for my own students to allow them to learn and revise concepts and techniques covered in my classes. However, the channel has now reached an audience of over a quarter of a million learners from all over the world. The feedback from my own students, and comments on the YouTube channel, point to an overwhelmingly positive response about the learning experience from students. There is also anecdotal evidence that Lecturers in other Colleges are actually using my videos to their own classes to explain concepts and techniques.

Aoife NiMhuiri, IT Tralee

I teach anatomy and injury management on the health and leisure course at ITtralee. I firmly believe that knowledge of the anatomy of the human body is essential for anyone involved in the promotion of health ad exercise including physical educators, coaches, gym instructors, personal trainers, adapted physical activity professionals etc. many of our health and leisure graduates find employment in these areas.  Over the years I have found it difficult and very challenging to simulate the interest on the health and leisure students in learning anatomy as it is very theory based and we don’t have resources such as dissection laboratories or practical anatomy rooms available to us in Tralee. With the assistance  of a grant from the NDLR last year I researched and purchased video footage from RTE and Sky Sports of [layers sustaining injury to various parts of the body in high profile games, I edited the footage to show the mechanisms of injury in slow motion and mapped it with anatomical diagrams of the injured structures
The innovative approach to the teaching and learning of anatomy has been a great success. The students thoroughly enjoy watching the videos and engage enthusiastically with the subject mater in class discussions as they can often recall seeing the particular incident on television or hearing accounts about the length of time that a player missed from competition and the treatment or rehabilitation programme required. It has generally stimulated their interest and application in this area.