Designing, producing and evaluating a multimedia computer based education system for teaching red eye diagnosis

The aim of this research thesis was to develop principles for the production of a computer based education (CBE) system designed to teach the diagnosis of 'red eyes' to undergraduate optometry students. The topic of 'red eyes' was chosen as the subject matter for this research because of an increasing movement by Australian optometrists towards using therapeutic agents for the treatment of 'red eyes'.

Based upon the results of an extensive literature review on CBE and effective teaching strategies, a series of four separate tutorials on 'red eye' diagnosis was developed. The first tutorial was initially programmed and evaluated in a pilot study. Results from this evaluation were incorporated into the design of a further three tutorials which increased in difficulty and decreased in feedback from tutorial one to four. Assessment of the four tutorials was then conducted using nine final year students and one recent graduate.

Qualitative evaluation of the tutorials indicated that the teaching strategies that were applied were successful in teaching most of the concepts considered important in 'red eye diagnosis'. Of note was the feeling of the students that they had increased their understanding of the topic and their enthusiasm for the usefulness of the tutorials and for CBE in general.

As a result of this research process, a structure was developed for teaching the topic of 'red eye' diagnosis that breaks the learning process down into four stages: 1. Recognition and Nomenclature 2. Signs & Symptoms/Differential Diagnosis 3. Simulated Controlled Examinations 4. Simulated Uncontrolled Examinations. Each of these four stages needs to be assessed in a similar manner to that used in the research and described in this thesis.