Collaborative Concept Mapping in an Image Evaluation Course: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Radiologic technology education
• Medical imaging physics
• Instructional design in healthcare

Background:

• Effective teaching methods are crucial for understanding complex technical factors in medical imaging.
• Concept mapping offers a visual approach to learning intricate relationships between variables.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess student perceptions of collaborative concept mapping in an image acquisition and technical evaluation course.
• To determine the utility of concept maps for learning image quality principles.

Main Methods:

• First-year radiologic technology students created semester-long collaborative concept maps.
• Concept maps focused on receptor exposure, contrast, spatial resolution, and distortion.
• Student feedback was gathered via end-of-course surveys.

Main Results:

• 90% of students found concept maps helpful for understanding technical factors affecting image quality.
• 85% of participants recommended using concept maps in future radiologic technology curricula.

Conclusions:

• Concept mapping is a valuable tool for teaching image evaluation principles in radiologic technology.
• Further large-scale research is recommended to explore concept mapping's broader application in radiologic sciences.