Can Simulation Be a Learning and Assessment Tool for Collaborative Learning in the Preclinical Years?

Collaborative learning cases (CLC) is a new model of teaching and learning in healthcare education based on patient problems. Basic medical sciences and clinical sciences are integrated in case-based scenarios simulating with real-life situations . The most common problem in the medical curriculum is that medical students have poor understanding of clinical conditions due to the inability to apply basic concepts to clinical practice. This is largely due to some curricula having a didactic teaching pedagogy with a teacher-centric and discipline-specific format along with content overload. The imperative was to develop teaching-learning formats based on collaborative learning, breaking away from the traditional didactic large group lecture sessions. This would promote self-directed, student-centred learning, which would lead to deeper learning, the acquisition of meaningful content and consequently, ideal educational outcomes . Furthermore, these learning methods would promote and develop domain-independent skills such as collaboration, respect, leadership, communication and research skills, professionalism/ ethical behaviours, and lifelong learning skills. CLCs also serve as the capstone to align the lectures, tutorials, simulations, and practical sessions. Prior to a CLC session, students take the pre-reading and pre-quiz (Fig. 1), and the in-class activities are facilitated by trained tutors (Fig. 2). During the CLC, a simulated patient (SP) and videos are shared in a sequential manner to facilitate discussion and strengthen student clinical reasoning skills. Evaluation of the CLCs are conducted through surveys involving students, tutors and SPs who observe the interaction between them and the students. These feedbacks are valuable and are frequently used as formative and summative assessment. Thus, CLCs can help students to better understand the relevance of basic medical sciences by integrating it with clinical sciences, encourage deeper learning, promote collaboration and lifelong learning. In this symposium, we will discuss the rationale and process of developing CLCs as well as the strengths and limitations. Further, we will explore these ideas in more details and engage in a collegial discussion that will broaden our perspective on collaborative learning. REFERENCES: Thistlethwaite JE, Davies D, Ekeocha S, Kidd JM, MacDougall C, Matthews P, Clay D. The Effectiveness of Case-Based Learning in Health Professional Education. A BEME Systematic Review: BEME Guide No. 23. Medical Teacher. 2012; 34(6),e421-e444. Samarasekera DD, Nayak D, Yeo SP, Gwee, MCE. Teaching for effective learning in higher education: Focusing on learning and moving from a "based learning" mind-set. Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 2014;4(2): 113-123.