The concept and tasks of the “Radiation Therapy e-Learning” project is the development and creation of an online platform for the purpose of knowledge transfer and knowledge tests. The end-user of the e-learning platform will be able to independently self-manage their knowledge on specific topics and to perform self-assessment tests about their learned content. The trend towards location- and time-independent learning is used optimally and supports and promotes the independence of acquiring knowledge of the users.
The aim of the “Radiation Therapy e-learning” project is to provide an e-learning platform for students to complete online courses on radiation therapy and appropriate knowledge-checks in order to provide self-assessments of the gained knowledge. Furthermore, the e-learning platform should be practical and concise.
After implementation and completion of the e-learning platform on our web space its operational reliability has been examined. Now, the platform has to be tested by the target group. The aim of the investigation about our project is to make an evaluation by the target group, to get feedback about its usability and usefulness.
The primary target group of the project are students of the Bachelor Course Radiological Technology at the University of Applied Sciences – FH Campus Wien. In particular, those students who are currently in the 4th Semester in which the chapter of radiotherapy is on the curriculum. The previous knowledge of learners within the target group about radiotherapy is considered as very low to zero. Radiotherapy is a very complex topic and usually students of the Bachelors Course Radiological Technology did not come deeper in touch with this subject-specific content before.
After the last teaching unit the students got an online video glossary for the exam preparation. We tried to explain difficult terms and procedures of radiation therapy in videos. In addition, an online knowledge check was carried out before the last teaching unit, in order to evaluate the areas where a repetition was important. For practical applications (contouring, planning) written instructions were offered online.
In conclusion the e-learning platform to offer students of Radiological Technology online training of radiation therapy, got overall well accepted. At every area of the evaluation questionnaire the majority of students strongly agreed or agreed to the statements that stated positive benefits about using the e-learning platform. The very positive results of the questions about the usability of the e-learning platform show that we drafted the website clear and structured so that the navigation through the different courses, teaching videos and knowledge-checks was logically and easy to perform.
