Combining virtual and traditional tools to maximize its learning. 2016

C VENTURA; A KLECHA; A GUTIERREZ; L LIPERA ; G CRICCO; C GOLDMAN

Abudabi

Conferencia; 24th WiN Global Annual Conference; 2016

Women in Nuclear Global

Training of human resources constitutes the foundation for the application of nuclear technology to human health. The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, offers a three year career including theoretical and practical training to obtain the Nuclear Medicine Technologist degree. Radiophysics is a central subject covering 56 hours attendance along with virtual support. During the 2016 cohort of students we aimed to improve Radiophysics learning combining face to face and virtual experiences: we included a guided visit to a radioisotopes production facility and, in addition, evaluated students? perception of the role of virtual learning by an electronic survey. The usefulness of the guided visit to the nuclear reactor and cyclotron of the Centro Atómico Ezeiza, Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), was assessed by recovering student experiences which were analyzed with a qualitative data analysis software (Atlas Ti 7). On the other hand, the role of virtual learning was evaluated by an electronic survey, which also was focused on student knowledge about their professional duties and their perception about the application of Radiophysics topics to their future professional practice. Our results demonstrate that the guided visit to the nuclear reactor and cyclotron allowed the students to relate their theoretical knowledge with the practical aspects of radioisotope production in our country, having a highly beneficial impact on students learning. In addition, our work revealed that at the end of the subject, students could define more precisely the role of nuclear medicine technologists and were able to associate the topics they studied with their future professional practice. Besides, the use of the virtual campus was positively evaluated by the students to support their learning. In conclusion, our results show the benefits of setting traditional teaching strategies and technological tools together to facilitate Radiophysics learning.