Medical e-Education Environment -m3e
Michael Schmidts 1Thomas Link 1
Markus Kemmerling 1
1 Medical University Vienna, Core Unit Medical Education, Methods and Development, Vienna, Austria
Beitrag
Objectives: According to international standards doctors of the 21st century should
- be thoroughly trained in clinical reasoning and problem solving,
- master communication skills as well as practical skills,
- be guided by adequate attitudes, and
- be prepared for lifelong learning.
In order to meet those needs the Medical University of Vienna (MUW) recently changed its curriculum: Horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge requires intensive knowledge management as well as changes in curriculum organization. Content, formerly provided by individual teachers, has now to be managed in a multidisciplinary approach. Additionally, we face an unaltered huge number of students, new shared responsibilities, newly attached extramural teaching hospitals, and not at least a reformed system of integrated examinations.
To facilitate these new challenges the e-teaching and e-learning strategy of the MUW aims to setup a medical eEducation environment – m3e.
Methods: As a 'hybrid learning infrastructure' m3e will offer a number of applications and web-based tools which will combine functionalities of a learning platform on the one hand with the requirements of information management on the other hand.
Primarily we will implement a content-management-system in order to support the assessment system, followed by process modelling and integration of other curricular tasks, e.g. definition of learning objectives and their linkage to their mapped content in the so called study guides.
m3e will be tightly connected to other strategic educational activities of the MUW like staff development and new teaching incentives, thus acting as a vehicle to promote modern medical education and professionalism in teaching. Besides, cooperation with other medical universities will be fostered.
Results: The MUW incorporated the m3e strategy in its development plan. The implementation of the project is designed for a period of 5 years beginning with October 2005, and finally resulting in an e-learning competence center.
Conclusion: Quite a few e-learning activities already exist at the MUW. By complementing these bottom-up initiatives with a top-down strategic approach we hope to push forward the establishment of e-learning and e-teaching at the MUW in order to reach the new challenges of medical education.
