Building a Case for Agent-Assisted Learning as a Catalyst for Curriculum Reform in Medical Education

Abstract

. Animated pedagogical agents offer promise as a means of making computer-aided learning more engaging and effective. Realizing its full potential fully will involve integrating agents into curricula on a massive scale, so that they are as pervasive as textbooks currently are. This paper describes progress toward this end: the development of an agent-assisted learning environment designed for widespread use in health science curricula. The system features Adele, an animated pedagogical agent who guides and assesses students as they work through clinical cases. The system is designed for use across a range of health science disciplines, and by students at various levels, from entering medical student through practicing professional. We present the results of a formal evaluation of Adele by twenty-five medical students, and draw several conclusions about computer-based tutoring in a clinical domain. We also describe our experience building the clinical case for the evaluation, from local prototype to Web-based product, and propose a process for large-scale case authoring. Keywords: Animated pedagogical agent, intelligent tutoring, real-world evaluation, simulation-based training