Time Allocation

Guiding questions:

How much time should the students have for VPs activities?
Should time for VPs be regulated at all?

The problem of time allocation is interconnected with all the previous themes. The literature strongly recommends that students should have adequate time allocated to work on VPs, because this is an overall important aspect when integrating e-learning into the curriculum [Edelbring 2011, Hege 2007]. In this section, we will discuss what can be considered an “adequate” time.

Generally, the time used for case completion will be dependent on the type of learning objectives (e.g. emergency medicine may need different time allocation than psychiatry), but also on the stage of the study programme (more time will be needed in the beginning of the curriculum and less towards the end). Some research indicates that time used for interacting with the system varies a lot, the majority of students access the system the day before a seminar and SP/VPs encounter, and just a few went beyond specified minimum requirements [Hirumi 2016]. If a VPs panel is used with a few clinical cases to be solved, tutors should recommend the students not to accumulate work on the last day before the deadline, but divide it equally in time.

According to the literature, students appreciate dedicated time for self-study with VPs as they can work at their own pace with each case [Huwendiek 2013, Radon 2011]. Despite some of the VPs being designed to be completed within 45 min (one academic hour), a wide range of time spent on working on the cases was observed. In the study by Dahri et al. (2019), year 3 students perceived 60 min of time to be inadequate and year 1 and 2 indicated 90 min allocated for the case work to be adequate [Dahri 2019]. On the other hand, students during clerkships spent 15-20 hours, completing around 20 cases [Berman 2011]. A study by Hege et al. tested different integration scenarios of VPs showed that students spent less time in mandatory than exam relevant VPs [Hege 2007]. Similar results were observed in another study where students spent approximately 15 minutes on one VP [Kononowicz 2012]. Based on our experiences from an iCoViP pilot, time for case solving should not be restricted if students are working at home, but it will be helpful in class to better control it. If you would like to assess how much time students spend on each case, learning analytics can be used.

Time will play an important role also during the exams. Students who took the exams on a VP without time constraints used approximately twice as much time as students with the time limit. This first group utilized half as many inquiries of the patient history, physical examination, and lab/imaging tests than were used by students from a second group, indicating that the time-constrained students used a ‘shotgun approach’ to try to collect as many ‘required’ inquiries as possible. Interestingly, in terms of obtaining the correct diagnosis, the majority of the students (91%) who took the untimed exam were successful, but of those with the time limit, only one-third (31%) correctly diagnosed the VP exam case, despite their higher number of queries [Gunning 2012].

When preparing to incorporate such activities like VPs into the teaching, it is crucial to consider also how much time and effort faculty need to invest to support a case-based course and whether this is feasible [Hege 2007, Nagji 2020]. Students would like to get feedback on their performance which often cannot be completely automated. The curricula with VPs have to be updated and modified, and this may take a substantial amount of teachers’ time that should be rewarded [Radon 2011].

Recommendations:
– Time used for VP completion will vary and depends on the type of learning objectives and stage of the study program (more time might be needed at the beginning, and less in higher years).
– You should not restrict the time for students when they work at home, but give them limited time, when working in class.
– Students perform better during untimed exams.

Phase of the curriculum	4th year of medical school
Goal in the curriculum	The iCoViP collection was implemented to practice selected VPs in the subject of Occupational Medicine (a voluntary subject in the University of Zaragoza in the 4th year of medical school).
Effective use of resources	The collection was used asynchronously so it was not necessary to have a computer infrastructure or a specific room and all students in Spain have laptops or access to the medical school computers. However, issue of updating content not yet solved.
VP alignment	The collection is used while students are doing their clinical placements having a teacher revising the responses and explaining to students most frequent mistakes.
Prioritization/relevance	For Occupational Medicine, the use of the iCoViP collection was a mandatory assignment needed to pass, but did not add points to the final grade.
Relation to other learning activities	None
Time allocation	One week was given to complete the assignment but more time was available for those who wanted to do the activity remote from home.
Group allocation	Students worked alone at home, when the educator discussed the solution of the VP, it was allocated in class (face-to-face or online).
Presence mode	Asynchronous
Technical Integration	It was integrated into Moodle.
VP use orientation/training	VPs were related to a specialty of medicine, but were randomly assigned to students regardless of where in the specialty they were rotating at the time.
Technical infrastructure	We used the technical infrastructure of the iCoViP project without any additions at the University of Zaragoza.
Learning activities around VPs	The teacher explained each VP and how to resolve them after getting the responses of all the students.
Assessment	Students had to complete the VPs, but there was no grade at the end. Only credit (pass/fail).
Quality assurance, maintenance, and sustainability	Frequent revision of the VPs by medical doctors.

Phase of the curriculum	Year 3 and 4 of medical school
Goal in the curriculum	Students learn basic steps of clinical reasoning including identifying relevant findings, developing differential diagnoses, deciding about a final diagnosis, ordering tests to rule out / confirm differentials, and suggesting treatment options.
Effective use of resources	Course tutors needed time to familiarize themselves with the VPs and time had to be planned during the synchronous meetings to discuss the VPs
VP alignment	VPs were part of the modules (e.g. Abdomen, cardiovascular system, pulmonary system, etc.) in year 3 and 4 of medical school and aligned with the objectives of these modules based on key symptoms. In addition a pool of 41 VPs was available for deliberate practice across key symptoms and diagnoses.
Time allocation	5 VPs / module
Group allocation	Students could choose whether to work in groups or individually.
Presence mode	Students could decide when and where to work on the VPs during the period of the module.
Technical Integration	VPs were integrated into the school's learning management system Moodle via a SingleSignOn interface.
VP use orientation/training	No specific familiarization, but general introduction at the beginning of year 3.
Learning activities around VPs	Depending on the modules other learning activities were embedded.
Assessment	The topics of the VPs were part of modules assessment.
Quality assurance, maintenance, and sustainability	We used the built-in feedback functionality to receive qualitative feedback from students and VPs were part of the regular evaluation activities of the medical school.

Phase of the curriculum	Year 1 and 2 of medical school
Goal in the curriculum	Students learn basic steps of clinical reasoning such as identifying & prioritizing findings and composing a summary statement. They also can follow the reasoning process of the VP author concerning differential diagnoses, ordered tests, and treatments.
Effective use of resources	Course tutors needed time to familiarize themselves with the VPs and time had to be planned during the synchronous meetings to discuss the VPs.
VP alignment	VPs were part of the longitudinal clinical course and aligned with the other modules in year 1 and 2 (In case of Augsburg this was Contact, Movement, and equilibrium). We aligned the key symptoms of the VPs with these modules, so that students worked in parallel on these VPs and the corresponding module.
Time allocation	15 VPs over two years / 5 VPs per module.
Group allocation	Students could choose whether to work in groups or individually.
Presence mode	Students could decide when and where to work on the VPs during the period of the module.
Technical Integration	VPs were integrated into the school's learning management system Moodle via a SingleSignOn interface.
VP use orientation/training	At the beginning of year 1 students were introduced into clinical reasoning and how they can train this ability with VPs.
Learning activities around VPs	Depending on the key symptoms during the longitudinal clinical course other learning activities were embedded.
Assessment	The topics of the VPs were part of the clinical longitudinal course assessment.
Quality assurance, maintenance, and sustainability	We used the built-in feedback functionality to receive qualitative feedback from students and VPs were part of the regular evaluation activities of the medical school.

Phase of the curriculum	Basic sciences/pre-clinical years: - At Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków we have integrated it in the “Introduction to Clinical Sciences” course in 2nd year of medicine. - At University of Porto in the “Propedeutics/Semiology” course in the 3rd year of medicine.
Goal in the curriculum	- To provide the students with an opportunity to challenge their knowledge at home in between classes with an interactive, clinical-oriented task. - To support learning by linking basic science knowledge with clinical reasoning. Students had the opportunity to practice on undiagnosed cases the skill of differentiating common symptoms, such as dyspnea, abdominal pain, headache.
Effective use of resources	Use of iCoViP VPs in native language of the students. No extra cost needed.
VP alignment	- In Kraków we have selected a few VPs (seven) with common diseases (e.g. pneumonia, pancreatitis, pulmonary embolism) with common symptoms. - In Porto, VPs are chosen according to the common symptoms to promote clinical reasoning.
Prioritization/relevance	- In Kraków the completion of all VPs is mandatory. - In Porto, VPs are introduced on a voluntary basis and are available on demand.
Relation to other learning activities	We used the time students had at home between seminars (Kraków: between on-campus based PBL sessions). VPs were spaced-activated (a new VP appeared biweekly synchronized with changing topics of the PBL seminars that focus on different leading symptoms).
Time allocation	Around 30 minutes biweekly, repeated 7 times in a semester.
Group allocation	Students worked alone at home to reflect but could consult the VPs with their peers or instructors in small groups of the face-to-face PBL seminars.
Presence mode	Students worked on the VPs asynchronously and self-directed at home to have time to reflect and consult textbooks.
Technical Integration	VPs were integrated with a course to which all students were enrolled on the official university learning management system Moodle using Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) interface.
VP use orientation/training	Students were provided with an introductory email with instructions and had additionally the opportunity to technically practice using CASUS in a parallel “Telemedicine” (Medical informatics) course. Instructors received test-codes to practice the VPs at home.
Technical infrastructure	Students used their own computers from home. An email address was provided to a person responsible for technical support.
Learning activities around VPs	Students were asked to complete concept maps for all VPs they solve. Moreover, in Kraków students were provided with links to additional online articles to help them with topics difficult at this stage of education.
Assessment	Students were asked to complete the cases prior to the end of the term. They were not given grades for the activity - just credit. Their answers were randomly inspected to see common mistakes and provide general feedback to all students.
Quality assurance, maintenance, and sustainability	We checked the diagnostic accuracy of individual cases (and detected one case with imprecise diagnosis). Students evaluated the course using the iCoViP case collection evaluation questionnaire.