Tamara Carver, PhDâ14, sounds enthusiastic about not just her job butÌęwhereÌęshe works.ÌęÌę
Itâs easy to see why.Ìę
Carver leads theÌęOffice of Ed-TECHÌęat McGillâs Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Itâs housed at theÌęSteinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning, which provides hands-on training in difficult procedures to future medical professionals without risk to patients. The SIM Centre, as itâs called, uses the latest medical simulation technologies to enhance the skills of health care professionals.Ìę
In a tour of the sprawling facility, Carver points out the array of unique paraphernalia in the storage room, from fake baby heads for airway management training, to pelvises, torsos, I.V. lines, and more. In another room used for trauma exercises, mannequins can be made to scream, and vitals to flash up on screens. The centre includes a simulated apartment used by physical and occupational therapy trainees, the McGill Dementia Education Program, and others.Ìę
âYou just never know what youâre going to see,â says Carver, who was once startled by the sight of an older woman in a hospital gown, bleeding, before remembering, âOh, right! Theyâre actors.â (The centre hires âstandardized patientsâ to act out scenarios for student training purposes.)Ìę
Itâs in this dynamic milieu, where the Office of Ed-TECH (Education Technology and E-learning Collaboration for Health) supports online learning in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Carverâs team includes instructional designers and multimedia specialists. With its own professional recording studio on site, the office develops e-learning content for students and faculty â and community education projects, such as the newly releasedÌęDementia Education for Care Partners, 10 self-paced e-learning modules available to the public. (More on that later.)Ìę
The case for a blended education experienceÌę
One of the officeâs e-learning modules, developed as part of a randomized-controlled trial, instructs medical students about chest-tube insertion. Traditionally, students would receive material to read and then practice the life-saving skill once or twice at the SIM Centre, says Dr.ÌęGerald Fried, BScâ71, MDCMâ75, the centreâs director and associate dean, educational technology & innovation. Then, they would perform it on a patient.Ìę
âWhat we thought was, if we prepare them better by going through an interactive e-learning module, which takes less than a half an hour, that they would perform better when they do the simulation â they would know what to do,â says Fried. The hypothesis was born out in their study: the students that prepared first with the e-learning module did âsubstantially better,â in the simulation, he says.ÌęÌę
This year, they added a third component: Before the simulation exercise, all the students participated in the e-learning module and half also completed a virtual reality (VR) experience to learn chest-tube insertion, wearing headsets and seeing everything in three dimensions. The VR group performed even better in the simulation, Fried says.ÌęÌę
âWe know from the research that a blended education experience is much more efficient, so that you can prep beforehand,â says Carver, an associate professor at the Institute of Health Sciences Education (IHSE) who is also a certified instructional designer.Ìę
Among its offerings for teachers, the Office of Ed-TECH develops micro-learning activities such as âGiving Constructive Feedbackâ, part of the Facultyâs âOur Words Matterâ initiative. Sometimes teachers think theyâre giving feedback, but a student doesnât perceive it that way, Carver explains. The e-learning activity includes ideas âof how to use your words and say, âI am giving you feedback nowâ â being explicit,â she adds.Ìę
Fried says their vision for online learning is to capture the best teaching from the best teachers within the Faculty â which would enable the Office of Ed-TECH to build a library of material over time. âItâs a bit boring to give the same lecture over and over again. But also, [itâs] to deliver it in a way that is really compelling with the best audiovisual materials, make it interactive,â says Fried. âAnd then, it could always be updated as the content changes. But once itâs done, then the students can access it at a time and place thatâs the most convenient for them.â It would also free up faculty time to work on other things, he says.Ìę
From the Steinberg Centre to the worldÌę
In 2022, Carver received a $758,000 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada as a principal investigator to adapt and enhance the McGill Dementia Programâs in-person workshop content to the COVID-19 context. The resulting online learning platform â Dementia Education for Care Partners â supports caregivers of people living with dementia.Ìę
Each module begins with a scenario to show real-life care partner experiences. The first one titled âBreaking the Newsâ features a mother and daughter waiting to see a doctor. The mother bristles, thinking the appointment is unnecessary. âIâm 75 years old. Everybody my age forgets things,â she grouses.Ìę
The e-learning platform is also available in French. The research results from the pilot project are under analysis, but Carver says all the feedback she has seen from preliminary data was akin to âI wish I had access to this before.âÌęÌę
Carver was also part of the group effort to provide virtual training to support Ukrainian healthcare workers after the Russian invasion in February 2022. Led by trauma surgeon Dan Deckelbaum, BMusâ96, MDCMâ01, director of surgical and procedural skills at the Sim Centre and co-director for the Centre for Global Surgery at the Ïăœ¶ÊÓÆ” Health Centre, a series of videos on life-saving procedures that can be performed by non-surgeons were filmed at the SIM Centre, edited, translated into Ukrainian and dispatched within 24 hours. âIt was incredible,â she says.Ìę
Big challenges, lofty goalsÌę
Carverâs Office of Ed-TECH focuses on priorities established by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences â such as the request by the Quebec government that the provinceâs four medical schools quickly ramp up the number of future doctors theyâre training over the next three years.ÌęÌę
McGill can admit 247 students to its medical school in 2024 (38 of them at the Universityâs Campus Outaouais in western Quebec), up from a class of 218 in 2023.Ìę
Carver recently chaired a committee with representatives from the provinceâs other medical schools that prepared a report for the Quebec government on âhow education technology could support this huge challenge of the increase in medical class size,â she says.
One of the committeeâs chief recommendations was to encourage closer collaboration among the medical schools.
âThere are incredible projects we have worked on here at McGill that can be used for all the medical schools of Quebec â and beyond. This is the beauty of education technology â it can be shared and re-used easily,â says Carver.
The Office of Ed-TECH is also involved in the SIM Centreâs on-going collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency, which aims to become the health care hub for future deep space missions. Also, on Carverâs wish-list? A fellowship to train medical students â including from low- and middle-income countries â in education technology to help build capacity in their own communities.ÌęÌę
Education technology is having much more than just a moment in the sun â and the Office of Ed-TECH is at the centre of this exciting trajectory.
The McGill Dementia Education Program helped secure the funding to establish the Office of Ed-TECH in 2019, with Quebec business leaders and philanthropists AndrĂ© Charron, Jean Monty and Jean-Guy Desjardins providing $900,000 in support. Two years later, the Amelia and Lino Saputo Foundation pledged $1.5 million to support innovative teaching and to expand opportunities in online learning at the office. Carver and Dr. JosĂ© Morais, the academic lead of the Dementia Education Program, received funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop that programâs online education modules. To learn more about the Office of Ed-TECH, watch thisÌę.
