HUMAN SYSTEMS EXPLORER

(DOCUMENTARY)

Multiple Teaching and Learning Styles

Human Systems Explorer interactive modules are just one in a host of educational tools that professors use to teach Harvard Medical School's varied student body. That said, CIO Dr. John Halamka believes that the modules are so well-adapted to teaching difficult medical concepts that he constantly highlights them in his lectures to illustrate how effective well-designed educational technologies can be.

Dr. Michael Parker, responsible for building the Human Systems Explorer modules, also integrates them into his own lectures, including one on electrocardiography, or EKG, for second-year students. Though reading EKGs in the hospital setting is accomplished at the expert level by recognizing patterns, students need to have an understanding of the basis of electrocardiography. This, in turn, requires Dr. Parker to teach a set of complex three-dimensional concepts. Some students can spatially visualize that kind of material in their heads, just from a conventional lecture; others can't. Dr. Parker says that the use of interactive visual modules helps level the playing field.

It's important to point out that most courses at the Medical School are taught using a variety of formats. For example, there are lectures, often with PowerPoint slides; case-based teaching sessions; small-group meetings; and hands-on demonstrations. Dr. Roberts, who helps teach an introductory course to respiratory pathophysiology, feels that students can navigate these various formats and "find their own way" to a solid understanding of the material. What's extraordinary about the Human Systems Explorer modules is that they can be incorporated as teaching tools into any of these formats, and help students who need a visual boost in deciphering the information, according to Dr. Roberts.

Dr. Richard Schwartzstein teaches a course called Integrative Human Physiology, which typically enrolls close to 170 students. With such an enormous group, it is inevitable that students come to the table with different ways of digesting information. Dr. Schwartzstein agrees that the interactive modules are invaluable for people who need visuals to grasp concepts. But he also thinks the interactivity of the modules – the way that students can play with diagrams, make their own changes, and see how things work over time – is vital for everyone trying to learn medical concepts: "We as people, as patients, are not static, we're changing all the time, and so the learning has to fit with what the ultimate goal is: taking care of human beings."