Developing Medical Virtual Teaching Assistant Based on Speech Recognition Technology

This paper proposes to present the results of the development of the Virtual Teaching Assistant (VTA). This system is an e-learning module as a learning aid for medical students currently pursuing professional medical doctor in hospitals. In Indonesia, students of the medical doctor profession education must study and work in hospitals like an experienced doctor. They interact directly with patients and provide the same services as doctors. Every student has a professional doctor at the hospital as a mentor or companion. However, student meetings with accompanying doctors are minimal. It is not uncommon for students to encounter difficulties when dealing with patients, but they do not immediately receive guidance. As students, it is natural that they sometimes forget the theory. These students need a theoretical learning source that is fast and practical, which students can use between activities. We developed VTA to meet the needs of information and fast learning resources. VTA can run on computer, laptop, or smartphones by utilizing speech recognition technology. Students only need to ask questions in the form of speech using their everyday language, and VTA will provide answers. Although the VTA answer is still not satisfactory, it potentially to support Question and Answer-based mobile learning for particularly learning subject.