Learning in a virtual world: experience with using second life for medical education.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Technology
• Virtual Learning Environments
• Continuing Professional Development

Background:

• Virtual worlds are emerging educational technologies with noted potential for health professions education.
• Limited formal applications and outcome evaluations exist for virtual worlds in medical education.
• The use of virtual worlds for continuing health professional development is largely unreported.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of virtual worlds for delivering continuing medical education (CME) to physicians.
• To determine effective instructional designs for CME within virtual environments like Second Life (SL).
• To understand the limitations, barriers, solutions, and costs associated with implementing SL for CME.

Main Methods:

• A pilot postgraduate medical education program was designed and delivered in Second Life (SL).
• Fourteen primary care physicians participated in an hour-long, interactive CME event on type 2 diabetes.
• Learning outcomes were assessed through pre- and post-event confidence surveys and performance on test cases.

Main Results:

• Physician confidence significantly increased in managing insulin therapy for type 2 diabetes (P < .05).
• Performance on test cases improved, with correct insulin initiation plans increasing from 60% to 90%.
• All participants found the virtual world effective for medical education and superior to other online CME methods.

Conclusions:

• Virtual worlds present a novel pedagogical approach for medical education, potentially enhancing learning outcomes.
• This virtual learning environment shows promise for postgraduate professional development and can be applied at medical school and residency levels.