The Millenium Hospital project

This talk presented the Millennium Hospital project (MHeL) which concerns developing an e-learning environment, platform and a demonstrator tool relating to minimally invasive surgery. The learning environment was then demonstrated, by first logging in, The user then has access to the environment, which is a 3D hospital around which the user can navigate. Users can interact with selected objects in this environment to explore their descriptions, roles, functions, etc, thus accessing and interacting with the learning material. For example, the user can interact with a "professor" object to explore information relating to the treatment of various condition about which the professor is expert. The environment also facilitates assessment of the learner. Thus, the general approach is to facilitate learning through use of a serious game. Again, it was not clear if any extensive validation and evaluation of the prototype and underlying ideas has taken place.

One questioner observed on the relative rudimentary and limited implementation at present. This was acknowledge, with promises of future improvements.