APPLICATION OF BRANCHES IN MICROSOFT FORMS DOCUMENTS AS FORCED REPLACEMENT OF SIMULATION PRACTICAL-ORIENTED TASKS, WHILE STUDYING CLINICAL DISCIPLINES IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE CONTINUING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Authors: Voloshynovych M. S. , Voloshynovych V. M. , Girnyk G. Ye. , Matkovska N. R. , Tkach V. Ye. , Kozak N. V. 
Published: October 2021

Sorry to state that optimistic forecasts for a quick overcoming of the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, did not come true. Accepting modern challenges, the higher education sector, like other areas of human life, continues to adapt and optimize work to the new conditions of a changing difficult, unpredictable environment. While theoretical medical disciplines are likely to experience this re-equipment with greater ease, practice-oriented subjects are in a situation of crisis in the quality of vocational education.

Results. In such circumstances, simulation systems, which are designed to create a safe environment, where, without risks to the patient, the future specialist can work out typical clinical situations, can be useful. Creating the comprehensive models requires considerable effort and highly specialized knowledge of working with specific software. However, if your aim is to create short cases that can be directly integrated in the form of multiple learning tasks to Microsoft Teams - you should pay attention to the well-known Forms tool from the Office365 cloud service package, which is available by subscription in many schools of this country.

On purpose of such task formation, we will be able to create branches, providing the use of optional choice questions. When using this function, we get the opportunity to redirect the respondent to different fragments of the form, depending on the chosen answer. Wrong options should be left as well among the proposed, but at the end a result of their choice brief comments, should be made, explaining their absurdity, which would be available for review in case of completion of the task with an erroneous result. The result of such work will be a tree of steps, each of which brings the respondent closer to the case designed by the architect.

Based on a system of diagnostic and treatment protocols, it is possible to calculate and formulate algorithms of action in certain clinical circumstances and, finally, create a Microsoft Forms document. This form, provided a combination of text and graphic data, allows you to place the respondent in a professional situation easily.  Such system gives the opportunity to make typical correct decisions or to make wrong steps, which brings to the circumstances an element of simulation training. Thanks to the built-in assessment system, it is possible to combine learning processes with ongoing and final monitoring of the quality of learning, to stimulate maximizing the result. Upon reaching a positive outcome, form an opinion about the assimilation of the element, or redirect to additional study of certain fragments of topics, in case of formation of the wrong network of steps. To simplify learning, some cases can be prepared with one pass option, which will allow you to practice skills of emergency situations, or tasks limited to a standardized step-by-step solution.

Conclusions. The Microsoft Forms cloud application can be used to create short clinical cases. Requires a combination of different types of input data and the ability to create branches to use it as a simulation learning tool. As a result, a decision tree is formed, which can be focused on assessing the acquisition of skills, and used to grade respondents, or to develop standardized solutions in typical clinical situations. The outlined system has its drawbacks, but it is necessary to take into account the general availability and ease of configuration.