Exploring Collaborative Training with Educational Computer Assisted Simulations in Health Care Education: An Empirical Ecology of Resources Study

Abstract

This study explores collaborative training with educational computer assisted simulations (ECAS) in health care education. The use of simulation technology is increasing in health care education (Issenberg et al., 2005; Bradley, 2006), and research is addressing the techniques of its application. Calls have been made for informing the field with existing and future educational research (e.g. Issenberg et al., 2011). This study investigates and examines collaboration as a technique for structuring simulation training. Part of a larger research and development project (Häll et al., 2011; Häll & Söderström, 2012), this paper pri- marily utilizes qualitative observation analysis of dentistry students learning radiology to investigate the challenges that screen-based simulation technology poses for collaborative learning. Grounded in Luckin’s ecology of resources framework (Luckin, 2010) and informed by computer-supported collabora- tive learning (CSCL) research, the study identifies some disadvantages of free collaboration that need to be dealt with for collaboration to be a beneficial technique for ECAS in health care education. The dis- cussion focuses on the use of scripts (Weinberger et al., 2009) to filter the interactions between the learner and the more able partner, supporting the collaborative-learning activity and enhancing learning with ECAS in health care education.