External Events

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Title: Learning by Concordance (LbC): Thinking on authentic tasks with automated feedback from a panel of experienced professionals

Presenter: Dr. Bernard Charlin, University of Montreal

Time:  10:00am

Location:  G253 (OHMES Office)

Expertise in the professions involves reasoning and acting appropriately in multiple professional situations involving complexity and uncertainty. In front of a patient, clinicians generate options (diagnostic, investigative or treatment) and evaluate iteratively the effect that the new information has on the hypotheses or options.

Learning by concordance (LbC) is an online training modality that places participants in a simulated context and solicits micro-judgments on questions that authentically reflect those posed by professionals in their practice.

Vignettes are deliberately short. They do not contain all the data needed to solve a case. Each question has three parts:
(1) a clinical case, described in a vignette accompanied or not by multimedia material;

(2) an option relevant to the case;

(3) a new information.

The task for the participant is to decide the impact that new information has on the option presented. These micro-judgments are compared to those of a panel of experienced practitioners placed in the same simulated context, having previously answered the same questions and having justified their answers. These answers and justifications are provided to learners after each question. A summary of key messages, including hyperlinks to other educational resources, is provided at the end of the cases. 

After being confronted with questions that they are likely to encounter in their practice, participants get  two sources of automated feedback:

1) The answers of the panelists,

2) The explanations given by the panelists to justify their answers and then detailed information and then key messages about the topic overall.

The tool is a powerful means of learning that applies both to initial training and continuing education.

The Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary has a number of activities and supports for the scholarship of teaching and learning, including workshops, funding and a journal club.