Walking with(out) senses
Walking with(out) senses
Year 2024-2025 Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences Maastricht University Coordinator & main teacher
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Intended learning outcomes (more on programme level)
This course is part of the electives of the Bachelor in medicine. The electives allow students to either deepen or broaden their understanding of the medical domain. |
Learning objectives (course specific)
Students will learn how and which sensory information is used in controlling human walking. In addition, they will be trained in critically appreciating literature about this topic, and in designing a small research project, manipulating some of the senses and in analysing and presenting the results of this research project. |
Objective statement (course description)
In this project students will:
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Type of course :
Elective |
Target group :
Second year students in the Bachelor of medicine |
Pedagogical approach:
Self-directed, activating learning |
Activities:
Reading literature Presenting to each other knowledge on human gait and on involved sensory systems Designing and running an experiment manipulating some of the senses Analysing the results Presenting the project
Week 1 Activity: Plenary session, brainstorming about sensory information and gait based on the introduction to this document. Based on the brainstorming you will come up with a couple of learning goals. Learning goals will be divided over the students, and will be self-study assignments for next three weeks.
Week 2 Activity: Demonstration of the CAREN system, experience some basic gait disturbances yourself, and learn which gait variables can be measured (and might be affected by gait manipulations.
Week 3 Activity: Plenary session, discuss progress of self-study assignment and possibility to ask questions.
Week 4 Activity: Presentation of self-study assignments. Students present their findings on the learning goals to each other, and subsequently discuss how sensory information can be manipulated and how gait adaptations can be assessed. Self-study assignment: prepare in teams a sensory disruption experiment.
Week 5 Activity: Plenary session, student teams present their plans to disrupt sensory information and evaluate gait variables. In this presentation, students mention the rationale for the proposed disturbance, give details about methods and present a hypothesis.
Week 6 Activity: Experiment in which students manipulate one of the senses and measure the effect on gait variables.
Week 7 Activity: Discuss progress and options for data analysis.
Week 8 Activity: In teams working on data analysis and interpretation and start to prepare presentation
Week 9 Activity: Final discussions and feedback on results and interpretation
Week 10 Activity: Students formally present and discuss their experiment and its outcome and reflect on what they have learned about the sensory system during gait. |
Assessment of learning:
Project report |
Effect (witness account, evaluation of the course) |
Additional biblio sources |