Using a Social Educational Network to Facilitate Peer-Feedback for a Virtual Simulation

Virtual simulation offers a viable alternative to traditional educational and training practices, offering trainees the opportunity to train until they reach a specific competency level in a safe and cost-effective manner. One of the benefits of virtual simulation is the ability to provide the trainee with feedback regarding his or her performance in the simulation, thus providing the trainee the opportunity to monitor and adapt progress toward the goal. With respect to learning and development, it has been long known that feedback plays a vital role in learning; we learn faster and more effectively when we know how we are doing and what must be changed to improve our performance. Taking advantage of the benefits afforded by peer-feedback, here we present a preliminary study that examined the application of a customized social educational network—the Observational Practice and Educational Network (OPEN)—to facilitate peer-feedback with respect to recorded performances of a gamified virtual simulation session developed specifically for medical-based cultural competence training. A virtual simulation session was recorded and uploaded to OPEN, which then facilitated peer-feedback by allowing the peers and educators/experts to evaluate, provide comments, and generally discuss the recorded virtual simulation sessions. Questionnaires were employed to gauge the feasibility of a social educational network (OPEN in particular) to facilitate peer-feedback, as well as participant satisfaction with using and interacting with OPEN (i.e., examining the usability of OPEN).