Zusammenfassung
This paper presents the Pharmacology Inter-Leaved Learning-Cells (PILLCells)
environment. This is a suite of multi-scale agent-based computer
models that enable nursing students to investigate the biochemical processes
of diabetes and its related medications. These range from the molecular to the
cellular to the interactions between organs within a sick or healthy cell-organ.
The participants were nursing students who learned about the pharmacology
related to diabetes either with computer models (experimental group; n = 94)
or via a lecture-based curriculum (comparison group; n = 54). The results
revealed significantly higher conceptual learning gains following learning
with the PILL-Cells environment compared to studying via the lecture-based
curriculum (U = 940, p < 0.001). It was found that the highest conceptual
learning gains were for the medication treatment subscale and the highest
complex systems learning gains were at the micro-level. These results
suggest that learning with the PILL-Cells is highly effective and enhances a
micro-level molecular view of the biochemical phenomena, and that this
understanding is then related to macro-level phenomena such as medication
actions. Additionally, the scores of the course final exam were higher in the
experimental group (unpaired t = –2.9, p < 0.05), which suggest that the
environment continues to provide a more general reasoning scheme for
biochemical processes, and thus enhances the pharmacology curriculum.
Nutzer