Simulador Web de Resonancia Magnética como Herramienta Educativa: Diseño, Desarrollo y Evaluación

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical modality with enormous popularity. This is due to several reasons, such as the high contrast it provides in soft tissues, the fact that it makes use of non-ionizing radiation and its high versatility since different contrasts can be obtained by proper parameter tuning. This has the direct consequence that this modality turns out to be complex and so is the learning process of radiographers.%MR technicians.

In response to such a complexity, this thesis focuses on the design, development and evaluation of a magnetic resonance web simulator that serves for training in both theoretical concepts and practice of MRI.

Software engineering is used for its development, where the different  steps to be carried out in a software project  have been followed. Specifically, the requirements that the tool must fulfill have been compiled by a group of experts. In addition, an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) has been incorporated in the tool. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that an ITS is integrated in an MR simulator.

The simulator has been evaluated  by means of three educational experiences. We have measured both user experience as well as the actual educational value of the tool. The latter has been measured by means of a one-day actual class-room experience.

In terms of user experience, our results evolved positively during the simulation evaluations. In particular, this feature improved significantly with the incorporation of an ITS. User comments supported the quantitative measurements obtained.

Results from the class-room experience showed statistical differences in favor of the participants who used the simulator both in effect size and in inferential tests. We are not aware that an evaluation of the actual educational value of an MR simulator has ever been reported