Basic Science Clinic - App project

Mobile app project description

This app is intended to be an educational tool for doctors training in the field of Intensive Care Medicine. It needs to contain two streams of content, with real-time tracking of individualised statistics to facilitate incentivised learning. The streams of content are: 'factoids' and 'flashcards'.

'Factoids'
This is a bank of true or false questions under different subject headings that we have generated, and will continue generating once the app is released. This content stream is intended as a self-testing set of questions – the user can choose to do a set of 50 or 100 questions (for example), randomly selected and displayed by the app. A single factoid from the bank is displayed on screen with an option to select true or false. If the user is correct – the app displays ‘correct’ with a restating of the factoid (to reinforce the knowledge) and if they are incorrect then it displays the correct answer. There are a few extra components in this section we would ideally like:
- The ability to select questions by subject (pharmacology, cardiovascular etc.), select specific subjects only (i.e. only pharmacology and respiratory) or randomise the entire bank.
- Individualised statistics that update in real-time, such as the percentage/number of questions correct and incorrect, a breakdown of correct/incorrect answers by subject, average time to achieve a correct answer etc.

'Flashcards'
This is a set of set of electronic flashcards that we have generated, again under different subject headings. This content stream is again intended for self-testing. The user can select to look through a specific subject or randomised set of flashcards. The side of the flashcard with the single word/concept is displayed on the screen and the user can then click on the flashcard to flip it and display the content side. The extra components we would like are:
- The ability to select flashcards by subject (pharmacology, cardiovascular etc.) or randomise the entire bank
- The user can mark their place in the set to return to
A display of the number in the set and the flashcard number the user is up to i.e. 12 of 60

The inclusion of detailed performance metrics will be a key mechanism for incentivising user participation. The statistics section is for the user to track their progress through a summary of the statistics from the factoids section, and the number of flashcards they have looked at. In addition, we were considering having an amalgamation of anonymised statistics from all app users if possible, so that the individual can track their progress within the group. Example statistics related to performance in answering factoids would include:
- Overall number and percentage of correct answers including by subject
- The time per correct answer (rate of correct answers) could be interesting as it disincentivises people to look up answers
- Longest run of correct answers
- Anonymous table of all current users comparing performance for each metric

Finally, the overall appearance and feel of the app is very important to us. We would like to have active involvement in font selection, graphics, design etc. particularly as it is a component of a brand that we have already developed.