My Virtual Audiology Clinical Skills Laboratory

Abstract

Most educational institutions have realized the impact of the Internet and the World Wide Web in education of which most have already been using Virtual Learning Environments for their staff, lecturers, and students. In this paper, the author proposes a novel and completely unique concept in Audiology, a web-based virtual clinic laboratory system, my-AudiologyLab, for audiology undergraduate students to practice their decision-making skills. This virtual environment gives students the opportunity to practice the process of conducting different types of appointment and check the development of their clinical reasoning. Opportunities to practice these skills online are important as it not only provides a safe environment in which students can experience a real set of scenarios where patients can be seen at the students’ own individual learning pace but it also prepares students for their final practical competency assessments. This type of environment means that students can work with patients and have the possibility of making incorrect decisions without any health risks. The e-learning system is a three-tier Web-based distributed computing system and has been developed using open source W3C (World-Wide Web Consortium) standards.