在傳統的教育上學生由書本及上課來學習知識，而教師則利用考試來了解學生學習的效果。但是對於一位醫學院的學生而言，當他們成為一位醫生時，他們必須懂得如何活用他們所學的知識。為了幫助未來醫生的養成教育，我們設計了一套以PBL為基礎的互動式教學系統－HINTS來禰補傳統教育上的不足。
我們是以三層式的主從式及Document/View的架構來設計HINTS。我們整合了Web及資料庫的技術，並提供了一個互動式的學習環境。學生在這個學習環境中是扮演一位醫師的角色，來幫一個虛擬病人看病。而醫師也可在學生完成教案的操作後，評估學生學習的效果及了解學生的想法。HINTS提供了四種工具：第一、是編輯工具，醫師可利用此工具來編輯教學用的教案。第二、是瀏覽工具，學生可在這個工具中執行教案。第三、教學代理人系統，用以輔助學生的學習。第四、是評估工具，教師使用此工具來查看學生的學習狀況。
當這套系統第一次應用在成功大學醫學院小兒科的教學上，我們看到了學生提高了他們的學習興趣而且教師也很容易地了解學生的想法。我們希望這套系統對於輔助教師的教學及提高其學生的學習效果，可以發揮最大的功用。在未來，也希望可以進而將HINTS系統應用到各種不同領域的教學上。

In the traditional education, Students gained their theoretical background about medical diagnoses from textbooks and practical training and teachers usually evaluate students’ performance by examinations. However, students have to know how to apply their knowledge in practice when they become physicians in the future. In order to help students to understand how to apply their knowledge to clinical cases, we design and implement a PBL-based interactive learning system - HINTS (Health Information Network Teaching System).
HINTS architecture is designed with three tierd client/server and document/view architecture. We make use of web and database technologies in this system to provide an interactive learning environment that students can play the physicians’ role to diagnose a virtual patient and teacher can evaluate student’s performance and understand students’ thinking processes. HINTS provides r tools: authoring Tool, browsing tool, pedagogic agent, and assessment tool. Teachers can edit teaching cases using the authoring tool. Students can browse the teaching cases by the browsing tool. When students browse cases, a pedagogic agent evaluates students’ performance and gives necessary aid. Teachers and students can use the assessment tool to evaluate the browsing results and detect the misconceptions.
The system is installed in the pediatrics department of Cheng-Kung University Hospital for some trials. Students have found that the system can make their leaning more interesting and teachers can see students’ thinking process more easily. We believe that HINTS can really assist teachers’ instruction and improve students’ learning effectiveness. The system can be applied not only to the medical education, but also to other education fields with similar discipline in the future.

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