Everything you need to run this course
Course administration guidance, materials to order, surgical instrument checklists, model assembly instructions, and videos on how to use the simulator models with your students.
Educator sign-in
The Educator Portal is restricted to course instructors and administrators.
New educator? Start here
- Request access from the course administrator — one educator per training site, renewed yearly.
- You'll receive your site's access code by email.
- Use it to create your educator account below — it's activated right away.
Sends a pre-filled message to roxana.geoffrion@ubc.ca
Already have your access code?
Already have a course account from the Student Portal? Just sign in with it — the same email and password work here.
How to administer this course
Each module is taught as a group workshop and stands on its own — run them in any order, whenever they fit your program's schedule. Residents complete the didactic content and its multiple-choice test online, at their own pace, before the workshop (80% to pass); the hands-on practical is scored pass/fail with the scoring tool. The sequence below takes one module from planning to sign-off.
Set the date and assign the online module
Book the workshop and tell residents which module to complete on the Student Portal (lessons, videos and the written test). Give them about 4 weeks. Residents need your site's access code to create an account — it links them to you, so you can see their progress below. Ask the course administrator (roxana.geoffrion@ubc.ca) if you don't have it.
Order materials
Use the ordering checklist to get the simulator model kits and consumables for the module. Plan on one model per pair of residents, plus a spare. Allow time for delivery and assembly.
Check who has passed the written test
Use the Resident progress table on this page to see each resident's furthest step, latest test score and pass status. Residents who have passed can also print a confirmation from the Student Portal — ask for it if you prefer a paper record. Tests can be retaken as often as needed (80% to pass); residents who haven't passed should not be scheduled for hands-on time yet.
Assemble the models and prepare instruments
Watch the model setup video and assemble one model per pair — allow extra time the first time. Gather the instrument set for the procedure so residents practise with the same tools used in the OR.
Review the teaching material
Watch the procedure video and the model workshop video, and skim the module's surgical steps and pearls below so you can direct residents through the model with the same language they learned online.
Run the workshop
Plan on about 1 hour of hands-on time for Anterior Repair, 1 hour for Posterior Repair and 2 hours for Vaginal Hysterectomy (the didactic content has already been covered online). Residents work in pairs — one operates while the other assists and retracts, then they swap — and you circulate, walking them through the operative steps and correcting technique as you go.
Score the practical
Assess each resident on the module's four timed tasks with the practical scoring calculator: enter the time and number of errors per task and it works out the rescaled scores, applies basic-skill penalties and shows whether the pass grade is met. When to score is your call — at the end of the same workshop once residents have practised, or at a later assessment session.
Sign off, or repeat
A resident who meets the module's pass grade has completed the module. A resident who doesn't should keep practising and be re-scored at a later session until they pass — the calculator's breakdown shows which tasks need work. Print the score sheet for your records.
Resident progress
Residents registered at your site (they join your site by using its access code when they create their account), with the furthest step reached in each module and the result of their written test. Use it to confirm who is ready for the hands-on session.
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Step 1 = Learn · Step 2 = Watch procedure · Step 3 = Test · Step 4 = Practice. A test result shows the resident's most recent attempt; practical results are the ones you record from the scoring calculator.
Order course materials
Simulator models and kits are ordered directly from our two suppliers; the foam cylinder and elastics come from any hardware store. Contact the suppliers to place an order for the modules you're teaching.
3DSmith Studios Inc.
One combined kit covers both Anterior and Posterior Repair. Pricing shown is from a sample invoice (PLA model, incl. GST + PST) — confirm current pricing directly with 3DSmith when ordering.
Sun Innovations
Both silicone skins — one for Anterior/Posterior Repair, one for Vaginal Hysterectomy — are ordered in large sheets and cut to size by the surgical educator, then secured onto the respective kits.
Hardware store items
Maximum external diameter 1.5 in / 38 mm. Any hardware store carries it; on Amazon choose the 16 × 9 mm option of this listing. Amazon.ca ↗
Ordinary rubber bands — used to hold the silicone skin and pedicles onto the foam cylinder (see photo). Any store
The photos show an assembled example: a short length of foam pipe insulation about 1.5 in (38 mm) across, with silicone skin pieces held on by elastics. Cut the insulation to length with scissors or a blade.
Instruments & materials to prepare
Surgical instrument tray plus the model-building materials needed to set up each simulator.
🔧 Surgical Instruments
- Scalpel and 10 blade
- Curved Rogers
- Straight driver
- Heaney driver
- Suture scissors
- Curved Mayo scissors
- Metzenbaum scissors
- Allis clamps (2)
- Long pick-ups with teeth
🧵 Model Materials
- Elastic band
- Four 2-0 CT1-Vicryl sutures or equivalent
- Foam cylinder — foam pipe insulation, max. 1.5 in / 38 mm outer diameter (see Order materials)
- Thin silicone sheath
- To wrap around foam
- To make a vault
- To use as anterior and posterior peritoneal edges
📐 Skin Template
Anterior & Posterior Colpotomy
Two rectangles, 8 cm × 3 cm each- Cut two rectangles out of thin surgical skin
- To reduce waste, try to use remnants of the surgical skin used to sew the vaginal cuff
- Place the anterior colpotomy 1 cm from the edge, and the posterior colpotomy 2 cm from the edge
Vaginal Vault
One rectangle, 13 cm × 6 cm- Cut one rectangle out of thin surgical skin
- Measure halfway down the length and cut a 3 cm line in the surgical skin (shown in amber)
Pedicles
One rectangle, 9 cm × 13 cm- Cut one rectangle out of thin surgical skin
🔧 Surgical Instruments
- Scalpel and 15 blade
- Allis clamps (4)
- Straight driver
- Heaney driver
- Suture scissors
- Metzenbaum scissors
- Long pick-ups with teeth
🧵 Model Materials
- Marking pen
- Balloon
- Elastic band
- Pushpins
- Two 2-0 CT1-Vicryl sutures or equivalent
- Thick silicone sheath, cut to model size
📐 Skin Template
Balloon
Inflated to 10 cm at widest point- Inflate balloon until the widest diameter is 10 cm
Surgical Skin
One rectangle, 9 cm × 13 cm- Cut a rectangle: 13 cm × 9 cm
- Draw a dotted line 3 cm from the lateral edges on the left and right side
- Mark midline on the back of the surgical skin:
- Starting 3 cm from the top edge, draw a 3 cm line on the foam in the midline
- Draw an ellipse with a maximal diameter of 1 cm
🔧 Surgical Instruments
- Scalpel and 15 blade
- Allis clamps (4)
- Straight driver
- Heaney driver
- Suture scissors
- Metzenbaum scissors
- Long pick-ups with teeth
🧵 Model Materials
- Marking pen
- Balloon
- Elastic band
- Pushpins
- Two 2-0 CT1-Vicryl sutures or equivalent
- Thick silicone sheath, cut to model size
📐 Skin Template
Balloon
Inflated to 10 cm at widest point- Inflate balloon until the widest diameter is 10 cm
Surgical Skin
One rectangle, 9 cm × 13 cm- Cut a rectangle: 13 cm × 9 cm
- Draw a dotted line 3 cm from the lateral edges on the left and right side
- Mark midline on the back of the surgical skin:
- Starting 1 cm from the bottom edge, draw a 3 cm line on the foam in the midline
- Draw an ellipse with a maximal diameter of 1 cm
Model setup & operation
Instructional videos covering how to assemble each simulator model and how to operate on it with residents.
Vaginal Hysterectomy — skin assembled on kit
Anterior/Posterior Repair — skin assembled on kit
Course content
Exactly what your residents see in the Student Portal — the three modules with their lessons, anatomy diagrams, surgical steps, videos and written tests. In this educator view the correct answer is marked on every test question, and your browsing is not recorded as student progress.
Practical scoring
This system rewards better performance with higher scores. Each hands-on module is scored on four timed tasks; time to completion and surgical precision are both evaluated.
Each task has a cutoff time. Finishing over the cutoff scores zero — no negative values.
Task-specific errors are deducted from the timing score.
Divided by the score achieved by proficient operators so every task sits on a 0–100 scale. Clamped to 0 and 100.
Out of 400. Compare against the module's pass grade.
Basic skill penalties — deduct 10 points from the total score for each observed
These apply across all modules and are deducted from the total after the four task scores are summed.
- Suture needle is not loaded ⅓ of the way down from the base
- Suture needle is not aimed 90° to the pierced skin
- Knot is insecure (unravels)
- Knot is not square
- Suture is cut < 0.5 cm long (too close to the knot)
- Needle is not guarded when the knot is being tied
- Needle is picked up with the non-dominant hand or another instrument rather than forceps