Development of online ultrasound instructional module and comparison to traditional teaching methods

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2002 by Nguyen, Jimmy, Paschal, Cynthia B

In assessing and comparing the abilities of students who have used an online device versus those who have attended classroom lectures, our ultimate goal was not to replace instructors. Rather, it was to explore a new method of teaching and in the process gain a better understanding of the learning process. By identifying its most important aspects we can then apply this information to any teaching environment.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

A. Online Tutorial

The device constructed for this study consisted of two portions: an online tutorial and an ultrasound device simulator. The majority of information was presented in the tutorial, a Web-based, textual and graphical description of ultrasound fundamentals. It was constructed in such a manner as to take full advantage of the resources available by the Web in terms of design, layout, ease of use, and technological features applied to its content (see Figure 1). The written text of the online tutorial was generated using raw HTML coding in Microsoft Front Page software and standard text editors.

The main page used a frame-based structure to sort its various elements. Dynamic HTML and Javascript coding was incorporated throughout in order to provide visual enhancements, while Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6 was used to construct the figures and equations. Finally, Jasc Animation Shop 2 was used to build the animations. The tutorial as a whole occupied less than five megabytes of disk space and therefore should not be considered weighty in terms of computing resources required for its storage or use. The current URL of the Web site[10] points to a start page containing brief introductory and instructional material for the tutorial.

B. Ultrasound Device Simulator

In order to demonstrate the principles that were presented, a program that simulates an ultrasound machine was run by the user. Usually this was done after completion of the tutorial portion. The simulator provided a visualization of the constructs, theories, and equations that were described and combined them into a single working model (Figure 2). It allowed the user to apply these ideas to an ultrasound scenario in order to help solidify how things actually occur in practice. By adjusting the various settings and controls and then analyzing the output, the user visualized the principles of ultrasound acquisition in action and therefore gained a better understanding of the operations in place. Finally, the simulator allowed the user to get a feel for the appearance and controls of an actual ultrasound device. In this sense, the simulator program could exist as a standalone application for ultrasound device training.

The user was not given any instructions, other than the presence of a help menu that explained the basic controls. Exactly how the simulator was used was left to the discretion of the user. The simulator was meant largely as a tool for experimentation and as a supplement to the written tutorial. It was written entirely as an applet in the Java 1.3 language and compiled using the Sun Java 2 sdk XEmacs 21.1 was used for code editing and development. Both written [11, 12] and online [131 references were used in support. The program could be viewed in any browser that supports the Java 2 applet.