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Good morning.
First of all I would like to thank IAVANTE and SESAM for inviting me to take part in this conference.
In 2005, the society of which I am president, the Spanish Society for Intervention in Sexology (S.E.I.S), signed a collaboration agreement for the development of joint projects for the promotion of sexual health. This agreement was later expanded to include other scientific societies and has given rise to various activities, such as sexual health training courses, which have been promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Health and the Regional Ministry of Health of the Government of Andalusia. All of these activities have incorporated many of the tools provided by new technologies in their methodologies.
The objective of the first training courses provided for the Ministry of Health was to include the maximum number of professionals, a minimum of 500 per course, in the shortest possible time. The idea of face-to-face courses was impractical for this number of students, especially when the idea was to provide a training course at least once a year.
On-line training
The solution came in the format of e-training. The term “e-training”, or “tele-training” is used to describe courses which take place via the internet and, in addition to didactic material, provide on-line forums, chats and video-conferences, etc. The role of the tele-tutor is to provide student guidance, to answer doubts and to evaluate the level of assimilation of the competencies being trained as well as to respond to questions via chats, group forums and emails, etc. Tele-training would allow us to both adapt the training to the students’ timetables and to reduce the time and money spent on other activities such as travelling.
Likewise, the e-training methodology is an approach which allows us to increase the number of students on a particular training course. On-line training platforms, especially the Moodle platform, offered us the possibility of attaining the objectives stipulated by the Ministry of Health. These platforms, however, require changes in the traditional methods of communication and information exchange.
Advantages
• Facilitates ‘teacher-student-content’ collaboration
• Greater interactivity
• More active student participation
Disadvantages
• Adaptation requires a change in attitudes
• Use of IT tools
• Change of teacher-student roles
A course was structured with the following characteristics:
• A group of experienced sexology professionals created the course material
• There was 1 tutor coordinator and one coordinator per subject (5), with the technical and administrative coordination of IAVANTE
• The duration of the course was 120 hours with 5 subject blocks and 10 units with two units in each block. There were between 2 and 4 modules per unit
• Each unit had a tutor for every one hundred students. There were ten units and therefore, 10 tutors per 100 students
• A maximum of 600 students with 60 tutors supplied by SEIS and other sexology and primary care societies.
This approach was not without difficulties, both in the preparatory stages and in the implementation and on-going development of the course. First of all there was reticence on the part of some sexologists to eliminate the face-to-face aspect of a course dealing with a subject such as sexuality. Secondly, there was a lack of knowledge of many of the tutors regarding new technologies, and finally, of course, the technical difficulties encountered by the students themselves.
Six hundred students took part in the course and the number of students who saw it through to completion was well above the average for this type of on-line training, especially considering that the duration of the course was long (three months).
The experience, however, was quite a lot more gratifying than many had expected and the communication between tutors and students was much more intense and enriching than was initially predicted.
In the light of the experience the Ministry of Health decided to repeat the course. At a later date the Andalusian Regional Ministry of Health drew from the experience to carry out a similarly structured course as part of a Promotional Plan for Sexual Health for Senior Citizens. Two further courses with the same number of students were also given.
To date we can say that 2,400 students have accessed these courses, with a high rate of adherence and completion of the tasks involved.
During these four years innovative proposals for the use of all the possibilities provided by multi-media technologies have been incorporated into the courses, including text-to-voice translation, the use of video-conference production programmes with multiple options such as the inclusion of images of the lecturer, and PowerPoint presentations which, in conjunction with written and audio content, form part of the self-evaluation pages.
Second Life Training
In 2009, IAVANTE made a proposal to the Spanish Society for Intervention in Sexology regarding the development of a pilot training experience using 3D virtual worlds and, more specifically, in Second Life.
Second Life is a virtual environment where anyone can participate, creating their own character or avatar. It is a 3D virtual world for people over 18 years of age with multi-player interaction in which:
• The residents (as they are known) move through a virtual world, making friends and creating groups with similar interests, buying and selling virtual objects, creating homes and businesses, working, living and having sexual relations.
• The official Second Life currency is the Linden dollar and a financial market exists where Linden dollars may be exchanged for (real) American dollars.
• Access to SL is free. One simply has to create an account with a name and surname selected from a predetermined list, create the avatar and download the SL viewer.
Once the proposal was accepted, we decided that the target training group should consist of sexology professionals from the official Master in Sexology course of the Almeria University, the only official sexology qualification in Europe, and professionals from the sexology department of the Valencia Public Health Service, and should comprise a total of sixty-one students, divided into four groups.
The course would consist of four workshops, two on sexual education and two on clinical sexology, divided into two blocks each. The total course time of sixty-four hours was divided into sixteen-hour workshops of two eight-hour sessions each which, in turn, were divided into two four-hour sessions, from 5pm to 9pm, two evenings a week, Monday and Wednesday, for a period of 8 weeks, with two teachers per workshop.
A group of designers was created to formulate proposals to the IAVANTE technicians with a view to maximising the creative possibilities offered by this 3D virtual world. Diverse scenarios were created, for example:
• A lecture hall with multi-media projection screens and evaluation tools.
• A museum of the history of sexuality.
• An intersexuality museum.
• A room for the examination of sexual dysfunctions.
• Four consultation rooms for simulating clinical sessions via role-play.
• A theatre-classroom.
• A courtroom for simulating sexological appraisals.
• A Trivial Pursuit board with questions and answers on clinical sexology.
Prior to the beginning of the course both teachers and students attended some training sessions on how to use the Second Life metaverse.
The students came from different autonomous regions and different academic backgrounds (medicine, nursing, psychology, etc.) and the majority of them followed and completed the course with a total of 56 passes, 1 failure and 4 drop outs. Taking into consideration the technical complexity of Second Life and the difficulties inherent in adapting to it, it can be said that, in this aspect, the course was a success.
The level of student satisfaction was very high, 92.86%.
This pilot experience certifies the validity of Second Life for training purposes, in particular for sexology training.
While it is true that the interpersonal contact is devoid of important sensorial factors, it is also true that the result is much better than other virtual environments because it is virtual and, at the same time, face-to-face training. I would say that the visual and auditory aspects are well simulated and that the kinesthetic sensations are better than in other environments, but they are not reality. However, the accessibility factor, the efficiency and the creative possibilities may compensate for these deficiencies.
The possibilities recognised by our society (SEIS) has led us to acquire our own Second Life island which was built to contain various lecture halls, a conference centre, a main office, therapy and group session rooms, a private club and facilities for both the University of Almeria and the International Academy of Medical Sexology, of which I am a member. To date we have used these facilities to hold meetings of the Board of Directors of SEIS, a meeting of the International Academy of Medical Sexology and several courses of the University of Almeria. A congress on Sexology has also been programmed.
In short, the 3D virtual world of Second Life has proved to be a very useful tool for the training and the administration activities of the Spanish Society for Intervention in Sexology.
Finally, we have identified Second Life as a possible platform for the development of sexology research projects which we have offered to our students of the Official Masters Degree in Sexology of the University of Almeria for their final dissertations.
All of this has occurred in less than a year and has opened a world of possibilities for the future.
I would like to finish by thanking IAVANTE for the trust they have always placed in the Spanish Society for Intervention in Sexology, for all that we have experienced together, and for all that this mutually enriching collaboration has signified.
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