Getting by with a little help from avatar friends: Use of AI-powered avatars to implement feedback training for faculty

Delivering feedback is a critical skill that remains widely underdeveloped among medical educators. Faculty development in this area has traditionally relied on lectures and in-person workshops, limiting access, scalability, and opportunities for experiential learning. Implementing practical technology-driven solutions that support experiential learning can expand access to simulation-based learning, fostering broader adoption and continued development of this key skill. We piloted a one and a half hour in-person faculty development workshop to gauge perceived benefit and interest in utilizing avatar-driven feedback training. Participants were introduced to key elements of delivering effective feedback and then given time to practice applying those skills with an AI-powered avatar. Faculty worked through three separate scenarios in which the avatar played the role of a medical student and faculty were tasked with delivering feedback using the Ask-Tell-Ask model previously introduced. After each scenario, the avatar provided feedback to the faculty member using a pre-defined feedback delivery rubric. According to post-workshop feedback from participants, faculty unanimously agreed that the session was effective, engaging, realistic, improved their ability to give constructive feedback, resulted in new skills applicable to real-life interactions, and would be of value to their peers. Plans are underway to enhance the realism of the avatar interaction and to transition the educational session into an asynchronous modality to enhance opportunities for scalability, accessibility, just-in-time training, and personalized education.

反馈沟通是医学教育工作者必备的核心技能，然而当前该能力的培养仍普遍不足。过往该领域的师资培训多依赖线下讲座与工作坊，这限制了培训的可及性、规模化推广潜力，以及体验式学习的机会。研发依托技术、支持体验式学习的实用解决方案，可提升基于模拟学习的可及性，推动该项核心技能的更广泛普及与持续提升。本研究开展了一项时长1.5小时的线下师资培训试点工作坊，以评估参与者对虚拟化身(avatar)驱动的反馈培训的感知收益与参与意愿。参训学员先学习有效反馈的核心要素，随后获得与人工智能驱动的虚拟化身(avatar)练习应用这些技能的机会。参训教师依次完成三个独立场景的练习：虚拟化身将扮演医学生角色，教师需运用此前讲授的"询问-告知-询问"(Ask-Tell-Ask)模型开展反馈沟通。每个场景结束后，虚拟化身将依据预设的反馈实施量规(rubric)向参训教师提供反馈。根据参训学员的课后反馈，所有教师均认为本次培训高效且引人入胜、贴近真实场景，有效提升了他们开展建设性反馈的能力，使其掌握可应用于实际临床互动的新技能，并认为该培训对同行具有实用价值。目前团队正计划优化虚拟化身交互的真实感，并将该教学课程转为异步模式，以进一步提升培训的规模化推广能力、可及性、即时培训(just-in-time training)支持度与个性化教学水平。