=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1465/paper3
|storemode=property
|title=Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course in veterinary sciences
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1465/paper3.pdf
|volume=Vol-1465
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ectel/TasnierBHPBDADA15
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==Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course in veterinary sciences==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1465/paper3.pdf
Learning to Look – Purpose and Design of an Awareness-
Raising Online Course in Veterinary Sciences
Sophie Tasnier, Valeria Busoni, Christian Hanzen, Jeff Van de Poël, Géraldine Bolen,
Catherine Delguste, Nadine Antoine, Véronique Delvaux, Tania Art, and Dominique
Verpoorten
University of Liège, Belgium
{sophie.tasnier, vbusoni, christian.hanzen, jvandepoel, gbolen, cdelguste, nadine.antoine,
vdelvaux, tatania.art, dvepoorten}@ulg.ac.be
Abstract. This paper reports on a work in progress: an online self-instruction
course created to stimulate students’ awareness processes when dealing with
pictures. Using non-clinical material, the “Learning to Look” course was de-
signed as a preliminary training to the observation of histological sections, radi-
ological graphs, and other specialized visual material. Following a presentation
of the project, salient results of a feedback questionnaire completed by 382 stu-
dents about their experience of the course are provided.
Keywords: awareness, veterinary sciences, observation, visual skills, visual
acuity, attentional training, clinical images, multimodal literacy, learning to
look
1 Introduction
Observation is a core-competency for veterinarians and more generally for health
professionals [1, 2, 3]. Correct prognosis and appropriate treatment always depend on
correct identification of animal behaviors, signals, and symptoms. This “ability to
look” is nowadays also directed at a growing range of images (in radiology, cardiolo-
gy, endoscopy, microscopy, etc.) more and more invoked in daily veterinary practice.
This context spurs the need of a renewed pedagogical reflection on appropriate ways
to improve veterinary student visual awareness in use of clinical images.
2 Observed Problems
The “Learning to Look” project stemmed from observations made by a group of
teachers from the University of Liege:
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Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course - ARTEL15
• students have problems when confronted with visual material like histological
sections, radiological graphs or dynamic recordings of clinical situations;
• despite its importance and its indirect assessment in some courses, noticing what is
in an image is not a skill taught in a targeted and coordinated way;
• several courses train somehow abilities to see. However, the specific visual materi-
al and activities they use hamper a generic and methodical approach of picture ex-
ploitation (to look, to spot, to describe, to analyze, to interpret).
3 An Online Course
To tackle these problems, an online course called “Learning to look” (“Savoir voir”)
was designed and offered, on a voluntary basis, to 630 bachelor and master students,
as a preparation for specific courses and practical sessions dealing with clinical imag-
es. The course was divided in 3 modules: Module A - Learning to look at an image,
Module B - Learning to describe an image, and Module C - Learning to interpret an
image. This paper focuses on Module A which matches the general topic of ARTEL
workshop: awareness.
The main purpose of Module A was to train students’ ability to apply sustained at-
tendance to an image (see examples in Fig. 1, 2, 3) in order to identify things of inter-
est within (or possibly absent from) it. (“Recall that the basic concept at the root of
attention is selection: we pick something out from the flux of the available”, [4, p.
86]).
Beyond this training of “visual acuity” the module also intended to foster aware-
ness to own attentional processes in learning activities prescribing to exercise control
over how and what to look.
In the Module A of the “Learning to Look” course, these attentional processes
were applied by students onto unspecific pictures (i.e. non-clinical images and with-
out relation to existing courses). This choice was deliberate and made for two reasons.
On the one hand, transversal benefits (not related to a precise type of picture) were
targeted. On the other hand, using arbitrary imagery at baseline provided a soft entry
in the attentional training process. Medical visuals were steadily incorporated in sub-
sequent modules of the eLearning course.
The course was released on the institutional eLearning platform Blackboard. Stu-
dents got 45 days (from March 1st to mid-April 2015) to cover it according to a self-
study modality.
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Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course - ARTEL15
4 Instructional Design
The instructional design of Module A presented as a series of pictures that students
had to observe. A question (see examples in captions of Fig. 1, 2, 3) challenged them
to find, match, or discriminate visual elements, with a time limit in some cases (a
mean time was calculated from the performance of a group of students who acted as
beta-testers of the course). For each picture, students answered the question either by
clicking on sensible spot(s) on the image or by selecting one option in a list. They
received an immediate feedback on their answer’s correctness and on the time they
had spent on the image (compared to the yardstick). Feedback was also enriched with
pieces of advice (e.g. “You did not find all relevant elements. Try to scan the image in
a systematic way” or “You did not spot the elements fast enough. Keep in mind that
speed is also a parameter of visual performance”). Following the completion of all
exercises, students received a compound awareness score.
Pictures were selected in existing material [e.g. 5] and displayed in an Adobe Cap-
tivate format in order to benefit from responsive design (mouse-over and embedded
countdown features) and easy quizzing. Module A was structured in 3 gradual pools
of 10 to15 exercises prompting various aspects of awareness according to a semiolog-
ical approach which assumes that because the meaning is not “lying” there on the
picture, one has to make an effort to grasp it [6, p. 343].
The Pool “To observe and to spot” had for purpose to help students to realize the
importance of sustained awareness, to introduce to a technique of visual scanning, and
to understand the notion of “awareness efficiency” (ratio “time spent observ-
ing/amount of elements discovered”).
Fig. 1. Exercise from the Pool “To observe and to spot”. The picture (credit: ULg) came with
the question: “How many animals do you see?”
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Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course - ARTEL15
The Pool “To compare and to measure” was shaped around selective awareness,
systematic capture of differences, and relative dimensions of objects.
Fig. 2. Exercise from the Pool “To compare and to measure”. The picture (credit: Freepick)
came with the assignment: “In the left frame, click on the horse that has no inverted twin in the
right frame”.
The Pool “To observe in 3-dimension space” revolved around shape matching and
mental construction of 3D objects from either sections of these objects or from 2D
representations.
Fig. 3. Exercise from the Pool “To observe in 3-dimension space”. The picture (credit: ULg)
came with the assignment: “Associate each view to its corresponding radiography”.
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Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course - ARTEL15
Two reflection amplifiers [7] were added to Pool A in view of prompting students’
metacognitive introspection on their usual way to look and, in contrast, on the value
of the visual scanning approach proposed (Fig. 1).
Fig. 4. Structured reflective episodes questioned students on their spontaneous way of observ-
ing and on their possible improvement through visual scanning.
5 Feedback Questionnaire
A feedback questionnaire about the course was sent to the students. It comprised mul-
tiple choice questions coupled with open fields for written comments. It was filled in
by 382 students, with the following results:
• 84% agreed or totally agreed that the exercises contributed to a reinforcement of
their ability to analyze an image;
• respondents elaborated on the benefits: “I have learnt to go beyond what is the
most visible in a picture” (50%), “I have learnt the technique of systematic ap-
proach (48%), “I have learnt that you can miss an image if you do not spot all im-
portant elements (44%);
• 80% were in favor of a module dedicated to digital imagery and based on the same
principles;
• despite their appreciation of the “Learning to look” course, some students men-
tioned that it added workload to an already heavy curriculum;
• some students complained about the exercises for which missing only one image
element out of many deprived of all the points.
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Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course - ARTEL15
6 Discussion and Future Work
Concern for the training of awareness is a long-standing issue. In 1942, the French
philosopher S. Weil assimilated the major outcome of formal education to the devel-
opment of attentional skills: “Although today this seems unknown, the training of the
faculty of attention is the true goal and almost only value of all study. Most school
exercises have a certain intrinsic value, but this is purely of secondary interest. All
exercises which help to develop the power of attention are of interest, almost equally
so. (…) Those who spend their formative years without developing this faculty of
attending and directing mind to an object have missed a chief treasure” [8, p. 85].
Since then, other works [9, 10, 4] have stressed the importance of awareness (and
germane notions).
Amongst possible objects of attention, pictures form a distinct category. Becoming
visually literate is considered as an important endeavor for students, especially nowa-
days in veterinarian and medical education wherein static and dynamic digital image-
ry has gained momentum [11]. Indeed, at the same time, efforts are made to partly
automatize recognition of terabytes of imaging data produced in many domains. But
even the best algorithm-oriented processes does not discard human intervention and
hybrid human-computer approaches of visual interpretation still appear as relevant
[12]. Developing visual awareness remains therefore critical, not to mention its im-
portance in new technological areas (augmented reality, quantified self, learning ana-
lytics, game-based learning, remote sensing imagery, etc. [13]) generating images that
both burden and relieve attentional resources.
If eye can learn and must learn, the question of how to teach it is open [14, 15,
16]. The “Learning to Look” project offers a concrete, grounded in practice, and
large-scale attempt to exert a competency which is seldom trained for itself, despite
its paramount importance for future veterinary practitioners. This instructional setting,
promoting a straightforward attention drill, must be further analyzed with regard to its
relevance, efficacy conditions, and contribution to multimodal literacy development
[17, 18, 19]. In this respect, a detailed assessment of gains in image handling, con-
veyed both by Module A as such and by the whole course (Module B - Describe an
image and Module C - Interpret an image have been made available to students) is
planned for the future.
Since the “Learning to Look” course is based on the assumption that awareness
development can be stimulated through training from the general to the specific (from
arbitrary to clinical images), instructors also plan to explore the possible use of the
online course beyond veterinary sciences.
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Learning to look - purpose and design of an awareness-raising online course - ARTEL15
Based on students’ positive reaction on this first run of the module, the instructors
will ascertain the best schedule regarding the course release. Offering its content ac-
cording to a distributed practice scheme [20, 21, p. 114] along the year – instead of a
massed practice during a short period – could expand the benefits of the module and
foster more sustainable learning. Technical options for an improved tracking of stu-
dents’ actions and scores will also be inspected.
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