What makes a virtual human credible and acceptable? Do they provide companionship that is similar to that of a person? More so, will it ever replace that of a person? It is not the art of simply creating a digital mockup of a human, but the art of creating an intelligent conversational model that is woven into a virtual human to deliver a personality and thought process; that truly raises the previous questions. Furthermore, we cannot predict the future, but it is simulation that can provide a picture of what the future may hold. This concept of simulation allows a doctor to perform a clinical skills interaction and a surgeon to perform a difficult procedure as many times as it takes until they reach a particular defined objective of proficiency. This is a capability that real life does not, nor ever will, offer. Standardized Patients (SP)s are actors who portray a patient to provide real life training to medical students. The obstacle that is being faced is the lack of standardization in the learning objectives and the quality of acting in SPs. Simulation can provide a supplement to existing training so that SPs may reach a higher level of competence; to in turn provide the best and fairest learning experience for medical students taking the Step 2cs exam. Several technical solutions, techniques, scientific studies, medical focus groups, and schools of thought are explored to assist in SP education throughout this book. In addition, this detailed reference also provides a fresh look to learning the fundamentals of clinical skills and simulation.

DAR & Earth: Yasteron continues the story of Aelish and Isabela, who must both somehow rise from the ashes of their shattered lives after the cliffhanger in Book Two. Aelish ventures back to DAR to reclaim her beloved Thagar. As she reviews the devastation in the N.W. Quadrant from Yasteron’s bombs, she agonizes over whether to annihilate the entire kingdom or forge ahead with a peace treaty in accordance with her Oath of Peace. While Aelish struggles with that decision, Isabela tries to recover from the unfathomable betrayal by her first love, Glen, a Yasteron spy, and her capture and torture by Yasteron soldiers in her research lab. While in DAR, Aelish discovers that one of the deadly vials Glen brought to the dinner party in her home, survived the bombing of the underwater bunker, where he was being interrogated by Thagar. The vial contains scientific information that Isabela has been searching for, in order to stop a burgeoning climate syndrome already causing early symptoms worldwide. Aelish defies the medici in DAR, who are unable to save Thagar’s life, and with the help of Isabela brings him to Earth for lifesaving human medical treatment. Despite the bombs crippling essential magic within DAR and destroying important tactical equipment, she secures an exit strategy to bring a severely injured Thagar to Earth.

Designed to help medical educators implement better assessment methods, tools, and models directly into training programs, Practical Guide to the Evaluation of Clinical Competence, 2nd Edition, by Drs. Eric S. Holmboe, Steven J. Durning, and Richard E. Hawkins, is a hands-on, authoritative guide to outcomes-based assessment in clinical education. National and international experts present an organized, multifaceted approach and a diverse combination of methods to help you perform effective assessments. This thoroughly revised edition is a valuable resource for developing, implementing, and sustaining effective systems for evaluating clinical competence in medical school, residency, and fellowship programs. Each chapter provides practical suggestions and assessment models that can be implemented directly into training programs, tools that can be used to measure clinical performance, overviews of key educational theories, and strengths and weaknesses of every method. Guidelines that apply across the medical education spectrum allow you to implement the book’s methods in any educational situation. New chapters on high-quality assessment of clinical reasoning and assessment of procedural competence, as well as a new chapter on practical approaches to feedback. Reorganized for ease of use, with expanded coverage of Milestones/Entrustable Professional Assessments (EPAs), cognitive assessment techniques, work-based procedural assessments, and frameworks. The expert editorial team, renowned leaders in assessment, is joined by global leader in medical education and clinical reasoning, Dr. Steven Durning.

Argumentation in Higher Education offers professors, lecturers and researchers informative guidance for teaching effective argumentation skills to their undergraduate and graduate students. This professional guide aims to make the complex topic of argumentation open and transparent. Grounded in empirical research and theory, but with student voices heard strongly throughout, this book fills the gap of argumentation instruction for the undergraduate and graduate level. Written to enlighten even the most experienced professor, this text contributes to a better understanding of the demands of speaking, writing, and visual argumentation in higher education, and will undoubtedly inform and enhance course design. The book argues for a more explicit treatment of argument (the product) and argumentation (the process) in higher education, so that the ground rules of the academic discipline in question are made clear. Each chapter concludes with practical exercises for staff development use. Topics discussed include: The importance of argument The current state of argumentation in higher education Generic skills in argumentation The balance between generic and discipline specific skills Information communication technologies and visual argumentation How can we best teach argumentation so that students feel fully empowered in their academic composition? Professors (new and experienced), lecturers, researchers, professional developers and writing coaches worldwide grappling with this question will find this accessible text to be an extremely valuable resource. Richard Andrews is Professor in English at the Institute of Education, University of London.

About 550 registrants from 51 different countries attended the Seventh Ottawa Conference on Medical Education and Assessment in Maastricht. We received 525 abstracts for the conference, divided in thematic poster sessions and platform presentations. Organising the conference was an honour and we tried to meet the high standards of a friendly and relaxed atmosphere which has characterized previous Ottawa conferences. During and after the conference about 250 papers were submitted for publication in the conference proceedings, leaving us little time for a post-conference depression. Despite the large number of papers, the editors have attempted to review and edit the papers as care fully as possible. Occasionally, however, correspondence exceeded reasonable deadlines, preventing careful editing of a small number of the papers. Although we felt that our editorial task was not quite finished, we nevertheless decided to include these papers. We thank the many authors for their enthusiastic and prompt response to - occasionally tedious - editorial suggestions and requests. We are sure that this collective effort has resulted in a book that will make an important contribution to the field of medical education. The editors want to thank Jocelyn Flippo-Berger whose expertise with desk top publishing and perseverance was a great help.

The last century has witnessed tremendous changes in the education and training system of medical students, as well as medical and surgical residents, in short, our future physicians. This has been the result of the changes in the educational philosophy, the technology, and the needs of our patients, just to name a few. The challenge is to learn more about the various systems in medical education throughout the world and identify advantages and disadvantages, a process from which we can all (and most importantly our patients) benefit from. This book is a compilation of the experiences, thoughts, and "best-practice" advice of a panel of international experts on medical and surgical education.