National Science Foundation (NSF): Learning Strategy Analysis on the Emotive Virtual Patient System
Experimental Research
March 2021
Done as part of the Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) program at the National Science Foundation, I completed a Learning Strategy Analysis on the Emotive Virtual Patient System Platform (as developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas). Completing this analysis included gathering, reviewing, and applying the relevant design principles to the system being developed and then offering actionable items for the developing team to apply. I presented the findings of this research at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society international Conference in October 2021.
The Emotive Virtual Patient System Platform is a mixed-reality system that uses augmented reality, virtual patients, a mobile application, and human peers/professors to help medical students practice doctor-patient communication skills.
I then provided the team with a table of recommendations that could be applied to the system’s development.
My role included locating articles on the following categories of research:
Augmented Reality
Pedagogical Agents for Learning (PALs)
Instructional/peer feedback
Natural Language Processing
The full article can be found below:
Villa, S. C., Craig, S. D., Zakhidov, D., & Zielke, M. (2021). Utilizing a Learning Strategy Analysis to determine a system’s potential impact on student learning: The augmented-reality emotive virtual patient system platform. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 65, No. 1, pp. 1562-1566). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1071181321651253
Reflection
Working on this project led to my first academic conference lecture, which is an achievement I am very proud of. The most difficult part of the process was in the analysis itself, mostly because of the level of detail in the articles I gathered needed to be reduced to identify the most relevant and applicable items from the literature. Once that portion was done, the focus shifted to communicating those actionable items into clear and articulated ways.
Overall, I’d say that this experience was one of the most influential and meaningful I have had. I had the opportunity to collaborate with the researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas to communicate my ideas directly, which was very beneficial to my understanding of collaborating with external stakeholders while in the development phase. I also had first-hand experience in preparing and delivering my lecture for the academic conference.