New Approaches in Teaching Medical Informatics to Medical Students

Transcription

1 New Approaches in Teaching Medical Informatics to Medical Students, Stathis Konstantinidis, Eleni Kaldoudi, Charalambos Bratsas, Maria M. Nikolaidou, Dimitris Koufogiannis, Nicos Maglaveras, Costas Pappas ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI Medical School, Lab of Medical Informatics DEMOCRITUS UNIVERSITY OF THRACE Medical School, Lab of Medical Physics GREECE

2 Motivation and Aim Background info on e-learning, standards and Web2.0 Technical settings for the development of online courses Example on Medical Informatics / Electronic Health Records Course evaluation elements - focus on web collaboration Discussion current/future work

3 During the last decade: an enormous expansion of available knowledge a clear demand for new techniques to enhance educational procedures ICTs are facilitating the use of e-learning environments and standards. Programs and courses designed back in 1998 need to be revisited to follow developments in: online learning continuing medical education global education social computing (Web 2.0) sharing teaching material etc

4 to show the approach we have followed in properly shaping our courses in Medical Informatics by using: open e-learning platforms/environments educational standards enriched student interaction and participation through Web2.0 technologies To demonstrate an example of a module on Electronic Health Records (EHR) offered to postgraduate medical students at AUTH

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6 Module/course design Teaching Methods Content Development Evaluation (learning outcome, Teacher, students) Support through ICT

7 Various educational platforms support web-based courses and perform as Learning Management Systems (LMS) that enable the management of e-learning courses LMS standards are used to ensure interoperability and transfer of courses between platforms. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) by ADL is a standard that adopts specific requirements to enable interoperability, accessibility, reusability, sequencing between learning objects. SCORM is embraced by a large number of institutions and corporations Several studies propose extensions to SCORM metadata to enhance sequencing rules, usability, adaptability, assessment metadata

8 Student-centred teaching plan Personal data protection 3 users: User-Student User-Teacher Administrator Learning methods: self-directed Asynchronous communication Synchronous or Virtual Classroom

9 Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment 21 st Century Schools Social Software and e-learning

10 Open source Easy creation of courses from existing resources Course content which can be re-used with different learners, including content from other vendors (Blackboard, WebCT etc.) Enrollment and learner authentication which is simple yet secure Intuitive online learner and teacher management features An active support community to help solve problems and generate new ideas Affordability

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12 Consists of small, distributable learning entities (Sharable Content Objects (SCOs)) SCO s are Small in size Reusable Provide solid autonomous learning material but also in combination with others The combination of SCO s leads to: An educational unit A complete course A training field

13 Package in one object (ZIP file) immanifest.xml Detailed description of the structure of the content Metadata Navigation data for navigation between learning objects and sequencing of content objects Special data for communication with Run environment

14 Overall roadmap in describing a module using Healthcare SCORM, and SCORM editors (exe in our case) and E-learning environments (Moodle in our case) Creation of LOM xml file Creation of SCORM Package by the use of a SCORM Editor Import LOM xml file into SCORM Package (.ZIP) SCORM Package E-learning Environment SCORM Run-Time Environment imsmanifest.xml Link LOM XML file Learning Objects Repository

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17 A wiki (from Hawaiian wiki, to hurry, swift) is a collaborative Web site whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it.* Perhaps the best example of a wiki in action today is Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia Wikis, and in particular Wikipedia, represent a promising principle that can significantly transform the Internet information age; they have grown very popular in recent months and years.** Special conferences have been and are being organized to discuss this interesting Web phenomenon of wikis; for example, Wikimania 2005, the First International Wikimedia Conference, 4 8 August 2005, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)-sponsored WikiSym 2005, the 2005 International Symposium on Wikis, October 2005, San Diego, California, USA (next 2006 event: * ** Connor A: Rewriting the rule books (15 August 2005)

18 A related Web information sharing technology is the blog. A blog (WeBLOG) is a Web site that contains dated entries in reverse chronological order (most recent first) about a particular topic.* Functioning as an online journal, blogs can be written by one person or a group of contributors. Entries contain commentary and links to other Web sites, and images as well as a search facility may also be included. *

19 Web2.0 approaches collaborative learning in principle enhances the efficiency of learning Tools we have used a combination of discussion forums wikis (topic/tag marked) personal blogs Within/outside a specific Case/Problem (Problem Based Learning (PBL))

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21 Module in Medical Informatics offered to Medical graduates attending the Postgraduate Medical Research Methodology (MSc) Program Basic Thematic Areas: Hospital Information Systems (HIS) Electronic Health Records (EHR) Medical Knowledge & EHRs Quality of Health Information on the web Bioinformatics Biosensors & signals

22 Classic lectures (2h / week); Material in Moodle Some lectures combine hands-on practice (2x2h lab sessions) EHR-HIS Coursework / homework (30%) Read a short article on EHR benefits; answer short questions (online from next year) Study a paper; participate in an on-line discussion forum re Hospital Information Systems (HIS element I) CBL/PBL component: study a case/problem Create personal blogs (tagged) Work in personal blogs re understanding/answering the EHR case Get assistance from relevant discussion forum Once finished, place things in class wiki Repeat for 3 times Web information quality Coursework / homework (10%) Bioinformatics Coursework / homework (10%) On-line exam (50%)

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28 split into groups of 5; individual commenting on a hospital information systems paper; Educator assesses responses

29 Case/problem based Set the scenario Get assistance from forum Use personal blog Update wiki

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37 Special Tags used for personal blogs; These were combined with the PBL steps

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43 245 versions! Some 20 were made by educators 767 changes made! Some 60 were made by educators Difficult to handle

44 Students evaluation in two stages. 1 st Phase: students were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire emphasising merely on the use of Web 2.0 tools. The Moodle system lead the logged-in students to an external web site powered by another open source source survey tool, namely, PhP Surveyor, so as to maintain anonymity. 2 nd stage: students were asked to evaluate the whole course using a dedicated, home made, evaluation software, specifically developed for course evaluation purposes within the postgraduate program of the Medical School at AUTH.

45 1 st Phase: Evaluation of the results indicates that students were quite satisfied by this approach, and were happy with the collaboration opportunities offered to them. Most of them admitted that they were tempted to read what others have contributed in their own personal blogs (which by the way were given public access to the enrolled students). they believed that they found the student collaboration opportunities offered by the system tools quite useful and enhancing the overall learning process.

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47 The approach has been evaluated within our post-graduate Medical Informatics course to medical students. Active student involvement is sought through participating in discussion forums and wikis/blogs, thereby fulfilling some of the learning outcomes set by the educators.

48 How much the e-learning environment helps the educational process?

49 Web2.0 ease of use

50 Percentages Did you consult your fellow students blogs before completing yours? Visiting other blogs No answer Always Many times Sometimes Rarely Never

51 Percentage Did you read the other wiki entries before inputting yours? Reading other's entries to wiki No answer Always Many times Sometimes Rarely Never

52 Percentage Do you think that being able to look into other s replies/entries helped you understand the educational content better? How helpful do you think this facility was? Collaboration assists educational objectives No answer Very much Much Some Little No Helpfulness in reading other replies

53 Percentage How helpful do you think the forums were upon completing course tasks and understanding educational contents? Helpfulness of discussion forum interactions for the educational process Student-educator Student-student No answer Very much Much Some Little No Assistance from forum entries

54 Participations Educator entries Student entries Forum 1: EHR wiki Forum 2: EHR-DB design Forum 3: EHR knowledge base

55 Very limited participation on Exam Forum A test-quiz was put on-line prior to exam 164 viewings for 37 students! 314 total actions; around 280 of these due to students attempts

56 Increased student liking for the course Increased interaction and participation Educator may control activities through Moodle Care must be taken in separate activities: Need small groups of people Many blog existences may confude students Need structured blogs Wiki updates may confuse people Need semantic wikis

57 Learning Objects, as independent units of educational material targeting to specific training needs, constitute one of the main research topics in the e- learning community. Many research initiatives in the field concern the issue of LOs reusability, but not within the Medical Informatics community. It is only recently that such efforts have appeared, geared by MedBiquitous dedicated to advancing healthcare education through technology standards. meducator proposal

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59 Podcasting s essence is about creating content (audio or video vodcasts) for an audience that wants to listen when they want, where they want, and how they want. * Advantages: Listen on your computer or download to portable MP3 players and listen on the move/anywhere (perfect for the busy health professional). But audio and video files can be large in size; users must have sufficient bandwidth to download them. Support for auditory learners (it is claimed that the primary learning style in at least 30% of learners is auditory). *

60 Source: Meng P. Podcasting and Vodcasting: A White Paper. University of Missouri, The above white paper by Peter Meng of the University of Missouri contains excellent How to Podcast and How to VODcast sections. Meng also describes many educational applications of podcasting and videocasting, including: Recordings of lectures for those students unable to attend the lecture in person; Audio recordings of textbook text by chapter, would allow students to read or review texts while walking or driving to class (significant aid to auditory learners); and Downloadable libraries of high resolution heart and respiratory sounds for medical students.

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62 P. Bamidis, S. Konstantinidis, E. Kaldoudi, C. Bratsas, M.M. Nikolaidou, D. Koufogiannis, N. Maglaveras, C. Pappas, New Approaches in Teaching Medical Informatics to Medical Students, Workshop on elearning in Medicine, Nicosia, Cyprus, November 15,

63 Contact: This work has been benefited from an INTERREG IIIA Greece - Bulgaria (Decision /YD /11/2005; CrossBorderHealth project), as well as, from an INTERREG IIIA/ARCHIMED grand (Contract Number A.1.087; IntraMEDnet project) fund by the European Union and the Greek Government

64 These evaluation results demonstrate a significant course improvement of the last year quality when compared with those obtained in the past 5 years.