This document discusses the development of a virtual simulation for radiation therapy education. It describes the team involved, challenges with current radiation therapy education, and how a simulation could help address these. It outlines the project timeline, development process using Maya and Unity3D, and student feedback testing the simulation. Key lessons learned include the benefits of blended teams and importance of organization, version control, and planning for different platforms. Next steps include expanding the simulation with additional exercises and technologies like VR headsets.
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Radiation Therapy Simulation
1.
2. The Team
Emin Saglamer
Technical Lead
Project Manager
Megan Trad Ph.D.
Instructor
Subject Matter Expert
Steven Lux
3D Artist
Unity3D Designer
Anthony Harrison
Unity3D Lear Programmer
3. Linear Accelerator
Use of Radiation Theraphy in the Fight Against Cancer
One of three main treatment modalities in
the fight against cancer
Linear Accelerators deliver ionizing
radiation
Goal is to kill cancer cells while minimizing
effects to healthy cells
Both a high technology and high touch
field
4. Training
Radiation Technicians
Education
Four year Bachelors Degree
120 total credits
Combination of didactic and clinical
coursework
American Registry of Radiologic
Technologists certification exam
Dictate clinical competencies
Provide licensure exam
5. Radiation Therapy Program
RTT 3301 / Introduction to Radiation Therapy
Classroom three days a week
Clinical two days a week
Students Struggle with
Balancing patient skills with technology
Fast pace of clinics
Therapists not interested in teaching
basics
6. Challenges Radiotherapy Education
Explaining technology through lecture and 2D images
Students so focused on learning technology in clinic they do not
learn to communicate appropriately with patients
Connecting classroom concepts with clinical experience
Lack of available time on treatment units
Desire to bring hands on practice to the classroom
7. Why Use a Simulation?
Give students enough time to practice core concepts.
Need for a learning environment not limited by:
Location & business hours
Staff availability
Student safety concerns
High availability & Low Risk Immersive Learning Environment
that reproduces the simulated environment with just enough
detail and accuracy to train students.
8. Instructional Technologies Support
Instructional
Systems Design
Research &
Development Team
• LMS, CMS, ePortfolio Support
• Graphic Design, Photography Services
• Video Production Studio
• Academic Computing
• Classroom Technologies
9. Partnering with ITS
GIT is a resource grant.
All faculty including adjunct can apply.
GIT Projects should:
Incorporate an educational technology to enhance
instruction online or in the classroom.
Have limited scope.
Last no longer than a year.
Grants for Instructional Technology (GIT)
10. Project Timeline
January 2013
Scenario & Exercises
Drafted
March 2013
Iterative Storyboard
Drafting
June 2013
Storyboard Complete
July 2013
3D Art & Assets Created
August 2013
Technical Design of
Framework in Unity3D
September 2013
Content Created in
Unity3D
November 2013
Exercises Created
January 2014
Testing & Debug
April 2014
Ready for Class Use
12. Platform Independent
Web Based Plugin
Downloadable App
Mobile Device Compatibility
Portable Assets
Compatible with Second Life
Target Platform
14. Major Components of the Simulation
Treatment Room
Room Lasers – isocenter
Linear Accelerator
Treatment Head
Patient Support Assembly
Patient
User Interface / Head Unit Display
15. Reference Materials Gathered
Scenario / storyboard
Basic functional specs & photos
Treatment room plans
3D models & textures
Sound clips
Gathering Data for the Simulation
16. Development Platform – Maya
Creation & Modeling of 3D Assets
Linear accelerator
Gantry
Table
Treatment room
Room lasers
Refinements to Patient Model
Animations for Patient
17. Development Platform – Unity3D
Unique Development Environment
Consolidate all game assembly tasks
Asset management features
Preview as you build
Quick publish and test
C# and Javascript coding
Third party tools by other developers
18. Development Platform – Unity3D
What was missing in Unity3D
Timeline based animations for multiple objects
Highlighting
GUI Interface elements
Fonts
We Used the following plugins
USequencer
Highlighting System
NGUI
26. Technical Innovations
Time Based animations used in Unity3D using
Usequencer.
Marrying Highlighting System with Usequencer.
Synchronizing audio playback with animations.
Using CSV to synchronize three developers and do
version control.
Exporting Unity3D project to multiple platforms.
Porting the project to Second Life in less than three
weeks.
29. Putting the Project in Front of Students
Two classes so far have utilized the virtual linear accelerator module.
Many students identified that they are visual learners to this helped them
better understand the class content.
Question Class of 2015 Class of 2016
How helpful is this module in
learning basic concepts of
radiation therapy
a. Extremely helpful 14(100%)
b. Helpful
c. Unhelpful
d. Unsure
a. Extremely helpful
16(100%)
b. Helpful
c. Unhelpful
d. Unsure
30. Student Feedback
“This is amazing and will help so many
students in the future. It could even help
patients. We have some patients at our
clinics that want to see the gantry rotate
around them and know what it does
exactly. This could help ease anxious
minds of patients. I loved it.”
-student comments
“
“I really enjoyed this module, it would have
been super helpful before entering the clinics! It
was easy to navigate and I enjoyed the
questions. I like this idea a lot too because it
gives new students a lot of useful information
so once they enter a clinic they will not be
completely out of place, they will have some
bearing on the machine.”
-student comments
“
“This would have been so helpful for our first
semester in the program”
-student comments
“
31. Lessons Learned
Students really enjoy learning in the virtual environment and
have requested other topics be taught in this manner.
It takes time and dedication to create a high quality simulation.
Most institutions and organizations have grants and programs
that support online teaching activities – you just have to be
proactive and apply for them.
Blended teams are stronger than the sum of their parts.
32. Technology Lessons Learned
Consider user base when choosing target platform.
Use universal file formats for your core assets.
Purchased 3D assets can be a mixed blessing.
Invest time in file naming schemes & organization.
Version control is not a luxury, it is essential!
Development for mobile devices still has gotchas.
33. Next Steps
Continue to monitor students response to the simulator
Apply for grants to continue work on the project to add
new exercises
SBMI Informatics Innovation Lab Collaboration
• Integrating Oculus VR type headsets
• Continue mobile device development
• Create additional exercises / case scenarios
Notes de l'éditeur
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Emin Saglamer
Introductions
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Megan Trad
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Megan Trad
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Megan Trad
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Megan Trad
Time:
Megan Trad & Emin Saglamer
Time:
Emin Saglamer
Time: 0.5 Mins
Notes: Very quick summary of what ITS does at TXSTATE U.
Emin Saglamer
Time: 1 minutes
Notes:
Emin Saglamer
Time: 2 minute
Notes:
Emin Saglamer / Megan Trad
Time: 3 minutes
Notes:
We started out with a “brain dump” a series of scenarios Dr. Trad wrote to get us started. Her scenarios were the beginning of a dialogue of refinement that took place between the tech team and the subject matter expert where we reconciled what needed to be done with what can be done. There was also significant amount of training us IT folks about the finer details of the Linac environment. To be able to code the behaviors of the Linac and its components the IT R&D team first had to understand how it works and all the parts come together.
We worked towards a document that was comprised of two columns: first column dividing the content into digestable chunks and outlining the section names and corresponding narration for the instructional sections; The second column provided visuals for the programmers, called attention to important details and described in as much detail as possible the animations and overlays that should be present during a particular step of the presentation.
Megan should talk about her experience from the point of view of the instructor. How was the storyboard process for her? Was it helpful? Was it frustrating? Did it take longer than she thought it would take?
Exercises were particularly difficulty to spec out as our familiarity with the combination of certain variables was limited. So we opted for more of an iterative design process that ended with pretty well defined yet not complete designs for the activities. We were not sure if the technology would reproduce the environments we are trying to simulate in as much detail as we needed. This is where prototyping usually would come into place in a typical project. We did not have this kind of time so we built the presentation sections and what we learned from those sections informed how much further we could take the exercises.
To some point, the narration text of the exercises was almost edited until the last week of the implementation to provide better clarity to the exercises – some of this we could not have anticipated before we got to see what such an exercise looks like on screen.
Emin Saglamer
Time: 0.5 mins
Notes: Dr. Trad came to us with the suggestion to use Second Life for this whole project. At the time we had had a long stretch of time and experience teaching and building in Second Life – since 2006 to be specific. However while Second Life is a great teaching tool and a fascinating environment to explore, it also tends to trap content and put a steeper learning curve than say a typical learning activity would on the web.
The year was 2013, and it was all about mobile apps. Our team wanted to open up the availability of this project and make it less platform specific. We chose Unity because it allowed us to develop for the web, both Mac and PC and also for Mobile OS’es all from the same set of core code. In short, we would author once and export to sorts of different formats later based on demand.
Live Demo
Time: 5 minutes
Emin Saglamer / Megan Trad
Time: 2 minutes
Notes: We may skip this slide if there’s not enough time.
Emin Saglamer
Time: 0.5 Minutes
Emin Saglamer
Time: 1 minutes
Emin Saglamer
Time: 2 minutes
Notes: Unity Development Environment I
Emin Saglamer
Time: 1 minutes
Notes: Unity Development Environment II