Researching haptics in higher education: The complexity of developing haptics virtual learning systems and evaluating its impact on students’ learning

Abstract

hapTEL, an interdisciplinary project funded by two UK research councils from 2007 to 2011, involves a large interdisciplinary team (with undergraduate and post-graduate student participants) which has been developing and evaluating a virtual learning system within an HE healthcare education setting, working on three overlapping strands. Strand 1 involves the technical development and evaluation of the hapTEL workstation which simulates clinical conditions for dental training including haptics (sense of touch). Strand 2 involves examining the traditional undergraduate curriculum and how this could benefit from the use of haptics. Strand 3 is concerned with the educational evaluation of the impact of the work carried out within Strands 1 and 2. Two theoretical frameworks (Entwistle, (1987) and Webb and Cox (2004)) have been used to identify as many factors as possible which could affect the impact of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) on the quality of the learning achieved. These frameworks have formed a foundation for measuring the impact of TEL on curriculum change, teachers’ pedagogical practices, students’ learning and on institutional practices. A range of quantitative and qualitative methods were designed, piloted and evaluated in order to measure the impact of TEL on teaching and learning; and to have a rich and robust data set which also addresses the variables in the frameworks. The results from using these frameworks show that institutional and departmental factors should be considered when evaluating the impact of TEL in higher education and that these had a major influence on the design and curriculum integration of the hapTEL systems. We have also shown that by involving the end users from the beginning enabled not only an enhancement of the students’ learning experiences but also a modification to the traditional curriculum itself and the successful integration of TEL within a very traditional undergraduate higher education dental curriculum. The conclusions from this paper confirm earlier reviews of researching TEL that technology integration is extremely complex and the related research requires a comprehensive approach of both quantitative and qualitative methods if one is to take account of the range of variables identified by theoretical frameworks. Finally, repeating the range of empirical investigations for a second year enables researchers to validate the effectiveness of the methods used in the initial year and thereby maximise the reliability and generalisability of the research outcomes.

Introduction

Haptics means the sense of touch and involves the science of incorporating this and the interaction with the external environment through touch. There is a substantial body of research conducted over the last 50 years investigating the range of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) developments in higher education; (see, for example, Computers & Education, 1978). These mainly consisted of different types of simulations, modelling, measurement and control devices and online learning environments and their impact on teaching and learning, which began with a focus in the UK on TEL in higher education (Computers and Education, 1978, Cox, 1983; Voogt & Knezek, 2008). However, the development and uses of haptics in education is relatively recent and as yet, there is little published educational research on the uses and impact of haptic simulators in Higher Education (HE) (Minogue & Jones, 2006). In spite of a lack of substantial research evidence of the impact of haptics-TEL on students’ learning, software simulations and medical simulators, particularly in the health sciences domain, are becoming accepted in some courses for teaching specific clinical concepts, and training associated skills (Pohlenz et al., 2010). Haptics are now being introduced in health science courses for several reasons including: enhancing the training of manual skills before students have to practise with humans thereby minimising ethical concerns and reducing the risks to patients (Minogue and Jones, 2006, Vidal et al., 2008).

An extensive review of TEL research over the last 40 years, mainly focussing on IT in primary and secondary education (Voogt & Knezek, 2008) and a review of research methods and theories used (Cox and Marshall, 2007, Marshall and Cox, 2008) have shown that there is a paucity of research studies which make use of theoretical frameworks to identify the range of variables which could affect the impact of TEL on students’ learning. At the time of publishing, there has been no known research which has used tested theoretical frameworks and models as the basis for evaluating the impact of haptics’ simulators on students’ learning and the integration into the HE curriculum. Theoretical frameworks such as that developed by Entwistle, 1987, Entwistle, 2009 which have been based on a wide range of previous empirical evidence enable researchers to identify the likely variables at the beginning of a research study, which might contribute to the impact of haptics (or other forms of TEL) on students’ learning, on design approaches, on university teaching programmes and on the institution’s adoption of such technologies. Furthermore, previous research has shown that the research methods adopted for evaluating the impact of TEL on teaching and learning can have a consequent influence on the outcomes relating to the context where TEL is being introduced (e.g. into the curriculum) (Cox, 2008, Entwistle, 1987, Marshall and Cox, 2008).

The main aim of the hapTEL project was to design and develop a haptics workstation and investigate its impact on students’ learning and take up in the undergraduate dental curriculum. This included the following specific aims:

• To develop new kinds of tools which will provide technical solutions to the changing demands in dental education;

• To develop and product test human computer interface devices which provide 3-D tactile manipulation and training and online simulations to reflect the individual learning needs of dental learners anytime anywhere;

• To investigate the way in which human–computer interface haptic devices and online simulations can contribute to the learning of dental students and Dental Care Professionals (DCP) and eventually to other health care professionals;

• To identify the pedagogies and pedagogical strategies which can incorporate TEL methods into undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in Dentistry;

• To develop more cohesive pedagogical and institutional theoretical frameworks to incorporate the uses of 3D and online TEL techniques which extend the affordances of the learners;

• To develop a more cohesive and comprehensive educational framework and research tools which can be used by other researchers and curriculum developers to analyse the possible contribution of TEL to post-16 education of professionals.

From these aims the project identified a range of research questions, though too numerous to include all here, including:

What impact does haptics-TEL have on student’s learning?

What pedagogical strategies and practices enable haptics to be integrated into the dental curriculum?

This paper argues that in order to obtain a much richer account of the range of possible factors which might influence the impact of haptics-TEL on students’ learning and address the above aims, it is valuable to consider those influential variables already identified by previous researchers. Many such variables related to the teaching and learning process, which have been identified through the collation and analysis of previous evidence, are provided in theoretical frameworks. These show how such variables might influence each other and impinge upon students’ learning. In considering the two frameworks discussed later it was clear that a mixed methodological approach is needed requiring a range of methods and techniques, since some variables such as ‘how the course content is selected and organised’ and ‘influences of department/school and institution’ would require a qualitative approach, whereas the quality of the learning achieved and the impact on students’ learning could be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively as elaborated on later in the paper. By triangulating the results from these different types of measurements the project aims to (a) contribute to theoretical frameworks for the development and evaluation of haptics in TEL; (b) validate the range of methods for evaluating the impact of TEL on the curriculum and on learning; (c) establish the relationship between research assessment methods and traditional curriculum assessments; and (d) identify some of the factors which influence the integration of different types of TEL within a higher education institution.

Furthermore, in the case of TEL involving haptics and other innovative IT developments there is often a multi-disciplinary dimension to the development and evaluation which requires evaluation methods which embrace the specific discipline research methods (e.g. cybernetics, dentistry) as well as the broader educational research approaches. This paper presents the rationale for the mixed methodological approach used based on theoretical frameworks, and identifies the relative importance of different variables identified in the specific theoretical framework when researching the impact of haptics-TEL in higher education.