Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Centre for Learning Environment & Assessment Development (CoLEAD), Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore.
Nurse Educ Today. 2018 Jun;65:136-149. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2018.01.006. Epub 2018 Feb 2.
The use of multiuser virtual worlds (MUVWs) for collaborative learning has generated interest among healthcare educators. Published evidence to support its use is growing, but none has synthesized the evidence to guide future work.
This study sought to provide a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of MUVWs in healthcare education.
A systematic review METHODS: A systematic search of five databases including CINAHL, Cochrane library, EMBASE, PubMed, and Scopus, was conducted from inception up to January 2017. Two independent researchers selected studies that met the inclusion criteria and assessed for methodological quality using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI). A total of 18 studies were reviewed and their data were synthesized narratively using a 3-P model (presage-process-product).
Average scores in the MERSQI for methodological quality are 10/18, which is modest. A rally by the government or professional bodies towards more collaborative working among healthcare professionals is a key driver behind implementing MUVWs. Funding is important for its development and evaluation. Team training in acute care and communication training were the most frequent learning objectives, and predominant learning activities include practice on simulation scenario and debriefing. Two-thirds of the studies did not explain their theoretical framework that underpinned their design and implementation of MUVWs. While MUVWs in healthcare education is generally well-received, learning outcomes remain inconclusive.
Despite a growth of studies on the use of MUVW in healthcare education, there is a need for more understanding of the application of theories to inform the learning activities. Therefore, we suggest educators to incorporate a theoretical model to explain the learning processes behind MUVWs. To improve the quality of evidence, we call for researchers to employ a more rigorous and broader approach to evaluation that explicates longer-term outcomes, including cost benefit analyses.
多用户虚拟世界（MUVWs）在协作学习中的应用引起了医疗保健教育者的兴趣。支持其使用的已有证据正在不断增加，但没有一项研究对这些证据进行综合评估以指导未来的工作。
本研究旨在对医疗保健教育中的 MUVWs 进行全面系统的评价。
系统评价。
从开始到 2017 年 1 月，对包括 CINAHL、Cochrane 图书馆、EMBASE、PubMed 和 Scopus 在内的五个数据库进行了系统搜索。两名独立的研究人员选择符合纳入标准的研究，并使用医学教育研究质量工具（MERSQI）评估方法学质量。共审查了 18 项研究，并使用 3-P 模型（预期-过程-产品）对其数据进行了叙述性综合。
MERSQI 方法学质量平均得分为 10/18，这是中等水平。政府或专业机构对医疗保健专业人员之间更多协作工作的支持是推动实施 MUVWs 的关键驱动因素。资金对其开发和评估很重要。急性护理团队培训和沟通培训是最常见的学习目标，主要学习活动包括模拟场景实践和讨论。三分之二的研究没有解释其理论框架，该框架是他们设计和实施 MUVWs 的基础。虽然 MUVWs 在医疗保健教育中的应用普遍受到好评，但学习成果仍不确定。
尽管关于 MUVW 在医疗保健教育中应用的研究有所增加，但仍需要更深入地了解理论在指导学习活动中的应用。因此，我们建议教育者将理论模型纳入其中，以解释 MUVWs 背后的学习过程。为了提高证据质量，我们呼吁研究人员采用更严格和更广泛的评估方法，阐明包括成本效益分析在内的更长期结果。
