Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Mar 27, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 28, 2019 - Apr 3, 2019
Date Accepted: Jun 18, 2019
Date Submitted to PubMed: Oct 16, 2020
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Development of In-Browser Simulators for Medical Education: Introduction of a Novel Software Toolchain
Background:
Simulators used in teaching are interactive applications comprising a mathematical model of the system under study and a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows the user to control the model inputs and visualize the model results in an intuitive and educational way. Well-designed simulators promote active learning, enhance problem-solving skills, and encourage collaboration and small group discussion. However, creating simulators for teaching purposes is a challenging process that requires many contributors including educators, modelers, graphic designers, and programmers. The availability of a toolchain of user-friendly software tools for building simulators can facilitate this complex task.
Objective:
This paper aimed to describe an open-source software toolchain termed Bodylight.js that facilitates the creation of browser-based client-side simulators for teaching purposes, which are platform independent, do not require any installation, and can work offline. The toolchain interconnects state-of-the-art modeling tools with current Web technologies and is designed to be resilient to future changes in the software ecosystem.
Methods:
We used several open-source Web technologies, namely, WebAssembly and JavaScript, combined with the power of the Modelica modeling language and deployed them on the internet with interactive animations built using Adobe Animate.
Results:
Models are implemented in the Modelica language using either OpenModelica or Dassault Systèmes Dymola and exported to a standardized Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) to ensure future compatibility. The C code from the FMU is further compiled to WebAssembly using Emscripten. Industry-standard Adobe Animate is used to create interactive animations. A new tool called Bodylight.js Composer was developed for the toolchain that enables one to create the final simulator by composing the GUI using animations, plots, and control elements in a drag-and-drop style and binding them to the model variables. The resulting simulators are stand-alone HyperText Markup Language files including JavaScript and WebAssembly. Several simulators for physiology education were created using the Bodylight.js toolchain and have been received with general acclaim by teachers and students alike, thus validating our approach. The Nephron, Circulation, and Pressure-Volume Loop simulators are presented in this paper. Bodylight.js is licensed under General Public License 3.0 and is free for anyone to use.
Conclusions:
Bodylight.js enables us to effectively develop teaching simulators. Armed with this technology, we intend to focus on the development of new simulators and interactive textbooks for medical education. Bodylight.js usage is not limited to developing simulators for medical education and can facilitate the development of simulators for teaching complex topics in a variety of different fields.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.