The status of virtual simulation experiments in medical education in China: based on the national virtual simulation experiment teaching Center (iLAB-X)

ABSTRACT

Background

Virtual simulation experiments have been rapidly applied to medical education curricula in recent years. China constructed a national virtual simulation experimental teaching center (iLAB-X), and this platform covered almost all of the virtual simulation experiment curricula of domestic colleges or universities. We aimed to comprehensively assess the characteristics and usages of virtual simulation experiments in medical education based on iLAB-X.

Methods

A total of 480 virtual simulation experiment courses had been constructed on iLAB-X (https://www.ilab-x.com/) by December 20, 2022, and the curriculum level, type and design were all searched in this platform. We also conducted an evaluation of curriculum usage and online tests, including the page view, frequency of participation, number of participants, duration of experimental learning and passing rate of the experimental test.

Results

The national and provincial high-quality virtual simulation experiment curricula accounted for 33.5% (161/480) and 35.8% (172/480), respectively. The curricula were mainly set as basic practice experiments (46.5%) and synthetic designing experiments (48.8%). Significantly, forensic medicine (100%), public health and preventive medicine (83%) and basic medical sciences (66%) focused on synthetic design experiments. In terms of usage experiments, the average duration of experimental learning was 25 minutes per course, and the average number of participants was just 1257. The average passing (score ≥60) rate of online tests was 80.6%, but the average rate of score ≥ 85 was only 58.5%. In particular, the average page views, the number of participants, the duration of learning and the test passing rate of clinical medicine were relatively low.

Conclusions

The curriculum design features, construction level and utilization rate varied in different medical majors. Virtual simulation experiments are particularly underutilized in clinical medicine. There is a long way for virtual simulation experiments to go to become a supplement or alternative for traditional medical education in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual simulation experiments
• medical education
• iLAB-X
• online education
• online education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contribution

Lindan Ji and Jin Xu conceived and designed the research. Jin Xu, Lindan Ji and Hui Zhu contributed to the analysis and interpretation of data and drafting the initial manuscripts. Penghao Wang, Hongyi Liu, Tao Chen and Zhijia Zhao contributed to retrieve and extract all data. All co-authors have given final approval of the submitted version. Lindan Ji is the guarantor of this work and has full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Availability of data and materials

The data of the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All data were publicly available on the iLAB-X (https://www.ilab-x.com/) platform. This study was exempt from the Ningbo University Medical Science Research Ethics Committee.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2023.2272387.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Higher Education Teaching Reform Research Program in Zhejiang Province [No. jg20180073].