Medical education is constantly evolving, especially as students were forced to study from home during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and new technologies have driven the rapid development of supplemental online educational resources. In this study, we examine if 360° videos can promote increased engagement over standard two-dimensional (2D) videos among medical students learning anatomy. We enrolled 39 fourth-year medical students to watch two four-minute videos of anatomy lab exercises in a 360° three-dimensional format using an immersive headset or in a 2D format on a laptop computer. Every two minutes, students were asked to rate their engagement from 0-100. Following the videos, they reported their degree of agreement with 14 statements related to engagement, practicality, and interest in the technology. While watching the videos, the average engagement reported by the 360° video group was higher at each time point than the engagement reported by the two-dimensional group. Further, the engagement remained high in the 360° group through the six- and eight-minute timepoints. In the post-video survey, the 360° group reported a statistically significantly higher average engagement in seven of eight measures on the assessment. A 360° video was rated as more practical and interesting than a two-dimensional video. No significant difference existed in the perceived ease of learning. Overall, the use of 360° video may improve engagement for short videos used in medical education. However, developing a better understanding of its impact on learning outcomes will be critical for determining the overall value and effectiveness of this tool.
User testing, a method of assessing website usability, can be a cost-effective and easily administered process to collect information about a website's effectiveness. A user experience (UX) team at an academic health sciences library has employed user testing for over three years to help refine the library's home page. Test methodology used in-person testers using the "think aloud" method to complete tasks on the home page. Review of test results revealed problem areas of the design and redesign; further testing was effective in refining the page. User testing has proved to be a valuable method to engage users and provide feedback to continually improve the library's home page.
Peter Brook's work has always figured in debates over ‘intercultural’ projects in the contemporary theatre. However, the controversy has most often centred on his engagement with Asian theatrical traditions, and in particular on his production of The Mahabharata. David Moody here examines Peter Brook's writings on Africa, as theatrical ‘discourse’ with its own theoretical half-life quite distinct from actual productions. This discourse, it is argued, can be described as ‘primitivist’, in that it constructs the African audience as, in Barthes's term, ‘degree zero’ – a ‘limit-text’ to universal theatrical communication. In doing so it presents a limiting version of African theatrical traditions themselves, and, as a result, reinforces a broader, more destructive global discourse of cultural primitivism concerning African and so-called ‘indigenous’ art and performance. David Moody, who currently lectures in Theatre and Drama Studies at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, is a playwright, actor, and director who has written extensively on African, post-colonial, and popular theatre, and is now engaged in his own problematic intercultural projects.
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