Celebrate Learning

Justin Bieber music videos, Twilight trailers and UBC tutorials on assessing joint injuries have something in common. They’ve all been watched more than 1 million times on YouTube.

“Sometimes I’ll have to examine a patient with a knee injury in Emergency but I haven’t done that examination in over a year,” says Tonia Timperley, a third year medical student at UBC. “I can quickly review the special tests through the three minute video and off I go.”

The videos for assessing knee, shoulder and hip and groin injuries were developed by Karim Khan, a professor in Human Kinetics and Family Practice at UBC. Now Khan and his team are developing videos that show how to prescribe treatments for these injuries.

To carry out this project, Khan received a grant from UBC’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF). The TLEF was created to fund projects that enable faculty and students to create and implement projects that enrich and make a positive difference in the learning experience for UBC’s students.

Khan’s project is one of many TLEF projects that will be celebrated during UBC’s Celebrate Learning Week, Oct. 23 – 31.

“We canvassed the health science students at UBC, the students in human kinetics, medicine and physiotherapy,” says Khan. “They said they needed help with learning how to assess body parts.”

Khan decided to develop some teaching aids and enlisted the help of Dr. Mark Hutchinson, a sport medicine and orthopedic surgeon, from the University of Illinois in Chicago. Khan and Hutchinson started with the knee, one of the most common injuries health care professionals come across.

In the video, Dr. Hutchinson demonstrates how to assess a patient who presents with a knee injury. He gets the patient to perform some basic movements, handles the knee and leg, and points out what to watch for. The video was broken into short segments and posted on YouTube.

“As a teacher I can direct my students to the videos,” says Khan. “They serve as an extra teaching aid and they generate discussion.”

“As a practitioner, I use the videos myself. I have a world-renowned expert at my fingertips.”

The clips were posted on YouTube in response to UBC student feedback; students wanted to access the videos at anytime and from anywhere. And now, with more than 1 million views, it’s certain UBC health science students aren’t the only ones benefiting from this learning tool.

“Clinical examinations take time to learn and are challenging to learn through a book,” says Timperley, who initially worked on developing the videos. “I can visualize what I saw on the video as I examine patients and go through a stepwise process that an expert has just done in front of me.”

As part of Celebrate Learning Week, a poster display featuring a variety of TLEF projects will be found on the main floor of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, from Monday Oct. 25 through Friday Oct. 29.

Celebrate Learning is an annual week-long initiative on UBC’s Vancouver campus that highlights student learning and development opportunities.

“Celebrate Learning is an opportunity to acknowledge teaching and learning innovation and to explore possibilities of further enhancing learning environments at UBC,” says Anna Kindler, Vice Provost and Associate Vice-President of Academic Affairs.

“It also provides a chance to confirm UBC’s commitment to excellence in teaching and to re- emphasize the value that we attribute to faculty contributions to the education of our students.”

Celebrate Learning events will be held all over campus between Oct. 23 and Oct. 31.
For more information, visit: www.celebratelearning.ubc.ca