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Pharmacology students are able to see exactly why a person with asthma suffers breathlessness and how they can treat these symptoms, in an innovative computer-based learning module.

"In an age where there is a copious amount of data available, visualising and manipulating data is crucial to mathematical and conceptual understanding," said Professor Peter Henry from the School of Medicine and Pharmacology .

Drugs and Disease A is a level three unit in the Biomedical Sciences double major and this module on asthma is a new and engaging way of teaching, developed by Professor Henry and his colleagues.

"We created the unit with the help of Paul Reid and Shane McGurk from Next Learning , a learning technology company," Professor Henry said. "At this level, students need practical as well as theoretical work and this unit, delivered in the brilliant new eLearning suites in the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences, complements their work in the experimental labs."

In one component of the asthma module, students can manipulate a simulated patient's airways to mimic the muscle contractions, mucus secretion and airway wall inflammation that occurs in people with asthma upon exposure to triggers such as pollens.

Then they can introduce different types of drugs used in the relief or prevention of asthma and observe their effects on the factors that cause airway narrowing.

"We have an understanding of the key biological processes involved in airway narrowing but we needed Paul Reid and colleagues at Next Learning to work with us to develop engaging, interactive computer models," Professor Henry said.

"They are quite complex concepts so to be able to present them visually means students can more readily understand them."

Professor Henry worked on the module for many months with the learning technology specialists from Next Learning.

"Since their level of expertise is rarely acquired by our busy teaching and research academics, we believe this sort of partnership may well be the way of the future for the continued development of online modules. As educators they were able to pivot with us and help the pedagogy we wanted drive the technology and not the other way around," he said.

The unit is taught to about 65 students jointly by Medicine and Pharmacology and the School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine .

"It is actually one of our smallest units," Dr Henry said.  "Since we introduced new units through New Courses, our enrolment numbers have increased four and five-fold.

"This technology partnership allows us to accommodate that increase.  We really think it is the way forward, and look forward to working with Next Learning in additional teaching and learning initiatives."