Enhancement of learning effectiveness of cardiac electrophysiology using a VR platform.

Abstract

<p>Cardiac electrophysiology is an essential component of medical, nursing and biomedical curricula. The main reason for learning this knowledge is to facilitate students in these curricula to interpret pathological electrocardiogram profiles and make timely clinical diagnosis, interventions and treatments.<br><br>Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a commonly used non-invasive diagnostic tool to access the heart function in the clinical setting. Basically, ECG assesses the electrical activity travelling throughout the entire structure of the heart. Through assessing cardiac electrical activity with ECG, the healthcare professionals can evaluate the heart function and identify abnormalities such as bundle branch block or myocardial infarction, for providing appropriate interventions and treatments accordingly. Thus the electrical activity of the heart and ECG are the important teaching topics for medical, nursing and biomedical students. Yet our students found the cardiac electrical activity and ECG very complicated to understand. Therefore, a virtual reality (VR) platform was developed to facilitate active learning in an immersive learning experience.<br><br>Practical sessions were conducted for medical, nursing and biomedical students. At the beginning of the sessions, these students used this VR platform to fully understand basic principles of electrocardiogram. Then they were presented clinical scenarios in which they need to identify the abnormal ECG profiles and make plans in interventions treatments.<br><br>A pre, post-test approach was used to test the learning effectiveness of the VR platform. A list of questions was disseminated to students before the use of the VR platform. After the use of the VR platform, the same questions were disseminated to the students. The pre-post test results reflected that the knowledge level of ECG was improved by the use of the VR platform.<br><br>Learning satisfaction surveys with 6 scale Likert were conducted. And the results reflected the students across different disciplines agreed this new approach of learning can enhance their learning interests. This results also reflected that they were well compliant to this new approach.<br><br>It is believed that this holistic approach combing principles of basic electrophysiology and clinical knowledge could make our students well equipped in their clinical careers.</p><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>