Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
Phys Med. 2020 Apr;72:22-29. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmp.2020.03.010. Epub 2020 Mar 17.
As a specialist field of study, medical physicists require a broad range of knowledge and skills to operate competently in their workplace. In Australia, these competencies are accredited by the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM). Education and training for medical physicists therefore consists of an exhaustive range of knowledge areas. This is made even more challenging due to the extremely diverse backgrounds of students in these specialist courses of study. These factors frequently lead to a disengagement by students with learning activities. To address some of these challenges, the Radiotherapy Physics unit in a Masters level Medical Physics course of study was re-designed to increase active learning that included scaffolded in-class and online tasks and supported by virtual reality simulations. These re-design initiatives were informed by a diverse team including academic and clinical medical physicists as well as education experts. A survey, conducted over two consecutive years was used to gain students perceptions about the re-design. The questions were designed to see if the students felt engaged with the various learning activities. Analysis of the survey data indicates that there was an overall improvement in students' engagement with the learning activities and the learning content. The paper further discusses nuanced understanding about the ways in which students engaged with the various learning activities including online, in-class, practicals and industry attachments. The paper discusses the appropriately informed learning activities that can be used to improve student engagement for highly specialised, content heavy areas of study.
作为一个专业领域，医学物理学家需要广泛的知识和技能才能在工作场所胜任。在澳大利亚，这些能力由澳大利亚物理科学家和工程师医学学院（ACPSEM）认可。因此，医学物理学家的教育和培训包括广泛的知识领域。由于这些专业课程的学生背景极其多样化，这使得情况更加具有挑战性。这些因素经常导致学生对学习活动失去参与感。为了解决其中的一些挑战，硕士水平医学物理学课程中的放射治疗物理学单元被重新设计，以增加包括课堂和在线任务在内的主动学习，并通过虚拟现实模拟提供支持。这些重新设计的举措由包括学术和临床医学物理学家以及教育专家在内的多元化团队提供信息。在连续两年进行了一项调查，以了解学生对重新设计的看法。这些问题旨在了解学生是否对各种学习活动感兴趣。对调查数据的分析表明，学生对学习活动和学习内容的参与度总体上有所提高。本文进一步讨论了学生对各种学习活动（包括在线、课堂、实践和行业实习）的参与方式的细微理解。本文讨论了可以用来提高高度专业化、内容繁重的学习领域的学生参与度的恰当告知的学习活动。
