Memorial University is the largest university in Atlantic Canada. As the province's only university, Memorial plays an integral role in the educational and cultural life of Newfoundland and Labrador. Offering diverse undergraduate and graduate programs to almost 16,000 students, Memorial provides a distinctive and stimulating environment for learning in St. John's, a very safe, friendly city with great historic charm, a vibrant cultural life, and easy access to a wide range of outdoor activities.
The medical school celebrated its 30th anniversary and accomplishments of 25 years of medical graduates in 1999. We are anchored to our past and navigating to the future with great enthusiasm. (Retrieved from http://www.med.mun.ca/Admissions/About-us.aspx)
Myself, as the lead instructional designer, along with my instructional design assistant and the content expert, created a storyboard for the virtual patient. After several concept map iterations the virtual patient began to take shape. Development of the virtual patient in Captivate was also done as an iterative process with the faculty member. That is, the faculty member was the content expert and provided all the knowledge required to create the branching scenario for the virtual patient case. We reviewed each branch with the faculty member and ensured the logical flow of the case was correct. As an integral part of the learning experience, the learner was provided feedback and an expert trace at the end of the virtual patient. Using SCORM 1.2 in Captivate we were able to capture all learner interactions with the virtual patient. Specifically, each response to each branching question was captured and produced in a SCORM Report in Desire2Learn. The following report is an example of the SCORM report generated from D2L (names have been hidden in black):
SCORM report
The report provides a number of useful pieces of information. For example, number of attempts, average score, average time spent. It also includes the expert trace, or correct responses, for the virtual patient. The student can be sent this report and then the student has the ability to go back to the virtual patient and review the case. Captivate, in conjunction with D2L, allows the designer to lock the virtual patient after one attempt if it is used as an assessment tool. Therefore the student can only view the correct responses or expert trace once without the ability to re-run the virtual patient.
Or if the virtual patient is designed as a self-learning tool, a student can run the case as many times as necessary. In this case, a results form is provided automatically to the student once the virtual patient is complete. This process is completely up to the faculty member and instructional designer of the specific case.
In Desire2Learn you have to import the SCORM compliant Captivate file using:
'Import/Export/Copy Components' under 'Edit Course'. This will allow Desire2Learn to unpackage the SCORM compliant zip file and set it up for proper SCORM reporting. You have to make sure SCORM reporting is enabled for your account via your System Administrator. Once it is enabled you can 'Edit Course', then select 'User Progress', find the course component in the list and click it. Click 'SCORM Reports' and under 'Actions', select the report you want to view.
To summarize, the key component to making these systems work together is planning, testing and diligence.
