Implementing Remote Collaboration in a Virtual Patient Platform: Usability Study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Technology
• Clinical Reasoning Development
• Collaborative Learning Strategies

Background:

• Virtual patient (VP) platforms are popular for medical education.
• Collaborative VP learning is underutilized despite potential benefits.
• This study addresses the gap in collaborative VP learning implementation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate a collaboration tool for remote student interaction in VP sessions.
• To assess if the tool impairs usability compared to individual learning.
• To determine if collaborative learning improves diagnostic accuracy.

Main Methods:

• Developed a five-step collaboration tool for VP platforms.
• Tested usability using the System Usability Scale (SUS).
• Compared diagnostic accuracy between dyads and individual students across 270 VP sessions.

Main Results:

• Collaborating students achieved higher diagnostic accuracy (71%) than individual students (53%).
• The collaboration tool demonstrated good usability with a SUS score of 82.16 (B+).
• The implemented tool showed no negative impact on system usability.

Conclusions:

• The developed collaboration tool enhances diagnostic accuracy in virtual patient learning.
• The tool offers a versatile solution for integrating collaborative learning into medical education.
• This technology opens new avenues for designing collaborative virtual patient courses.