Web-Trace and the Learning of Visual Discrimination Skills

Web-trace is a learning environment that provides graphical feedback by comparing a trace drawn by the learner on an image with a reference trace that an expert has previousy drawn on the same image. This type of feedback may be very useful to help developing the subtle visual discrimination skills needed in a variety of disciplines, especially in the medical field. In this paper we describe how Web-trace has been used to create an online practice environment to learn the tracing of anatomical structures on skull X-rays and present the results of a field study in which 16 students of orthodontics have developed their tracing skills by self-study with Web-trace and Tablet PCs. The aim of the study was gaining an understanding of the impact of this method on learning and retention and on the fundamental usability issues with Web-trace on a tablet PC. The study suggests that Web-trace and its pen-based interaction modalities effectively support the learning of visual discrimination skills, also catering for individual preferences. Differences in the accuracy of the traced anatomical structures in the retention test give us some insight to model the visual learning process.