A practical guide to virtual debriefings: communities of inquiry perspective

Adam Cheng; Michaela Kolbe; Vincent Grant; Susan Eller; Roberta Hales; Benjamin Symon; Sharon Griswold; Walter Eppich

doi:10.1186/s41077-020-00141-1

A practical guide to virtual debriefings: communities of inquiry perspective

Adv Simul (Lond). 2020 Aug 12:5:18. doi: 10.1186/s41077-020-00141-1. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Adam Cheng¹, Michaela Kolbe², Vincent Grant¹, Susan Eller³, Roberta Hales⁴, Benjamin Symon⁵, Sharon Griswold⁶, Walter Eppich⁷

Affiliations

¹ KidSIM-ASPIRE Research Program, Alberta Children's Hospital, Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, 28 Oki Drive NW, Calgary, Canada.
² Simulation Center, UniversitatsSpital Zurich, Ramistrasse 100, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Center for Immersive And Simulation-based Learning, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
⁴ Center for Simulation, Advanced Education and Innovation, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA.
⁵ Simulation Training Optimising Resuscitation for Kids (STORK), Queensland Children's Hospital, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁶ Department of Emergency Medicine, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive, M.C. H043, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA USA.
⁷ Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Education, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, USA.

Abstract

Many simulation programs have recently shifted towards providing remote simulations with virtual debriefings. Virtual debriefings involve educators facilitating conversations through web-based videoconferencing platforms. Facilitating debriefings through a computer interface introduces a unique set of challenges. Educators require practical guidance to support meaningful virtual learning in the transition from in-person to virtual debriefings. The communities of inquiry conceptual framework offer a useful structure to organize practical guidance for conducting virtual debriefings. The communities of inquiry framework describe the three key elements-social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence-all of which contribute to the overall learning experience. In this paper, we (1) define the CoI framework and describe its three core elements, (2) highlight how virtual debriefings align with CoI, (3) anticipate barriers to effective virtual debriefings, and (4) share practical strategies to overcome these hurdles.

Keywords: Communities of inquiry; Debriefing; Learning; Online; Remote; Virtual.