1. Virtual Medical Campus (VMC) Graz: Innovative Curriculum meets Innovative Learning Objects Technology
- Author
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Stefan Vejda, Josef Smolle, Ingomar Wascher, Reinhard Staber, Volkmar H. Haase, and Christian Steinmann
- Subjects
German ,Computer science ,Pedagogy ,language ,Mathematics education ,Information system ,Table of contents ,Curriculum ,Lecture hall ,Project team ,Competence (human resources) ,language.human_language ,New media - Abstract
The Story The Federal Republic of Germany executes a strict "numerus clausus" scheme for students of Medicine. Austria did not in the recent years, but: foreign (i.e. German) students were not allowed to enter unless they were eligible for studies in their home country. Because of this there was no chance for German numerus-clausus-victims in Austria. In July 2005 the European Court of Justice stopped this practice. Now German students are able to inscribe medical studies at Austrian (German speaking) universities. The size of a typical class for beginners will rise from approximately 250 to 2500. The Medical University of Graz (MUG) can handle this situation by using virtual teaching in the first semester. Everybody is free to start medical studies, and we select the "best" students in examinations after the first semester. In autumn 2005, more than 3000 students started Medicine at MUG--our largest lecture hall has 375 seats but VMC can handle almost unlimited numbers by means of electronic multimedia teleteaching. In 2002 MUG had introduced a new curriculum for Medicine, concentrating on thematic issues crossing classical borderlines of medical disciplines (Glasgow, 1997; Maerz, 1998). The new contents had to be backed by a university-wide information system as a guidebook for students and an orientation system for lecturers. The project VMC ("Virtual Medical Campus") started in 2002: all relevant learning contents of the new curriculum had to be mapped into an electronic system and should be accessible for all MUG students without charge and without technical problems. Contents were (and are still) provided by MUG, the technology was (and is continuously) developed by HM&S IT-Consulting and partner companies, the overall design was a task of the whole team. (Smolle, 2004) At present VMC is "the" learning system for students of the first semester. They get all the necessary information from there, while later in the curriculum VMC has rather a tutorial function complementary to lectures, seminars and bedside experience. Educational Background Two decisions mark the beginning of the project: the design of a new curriculum coping with the requirements of the 21st century (Stuko, 2002), and the idea that this curriculum had to be "available" in electronic form for everybody. (Ecker, 2000) Two project groups working closely together developed the table of contents of the curriculum and the e-learning system, respectively. The new courses had to be "implemented" in electronic form. In parallel with that, the MUG lecturers were educated and supported in the use of the new medium. In our VMC competence centre four persons are responsible for this process. The means were planning workshops, now support is provided individually on demand. There are approx.600 lecturers at MUG. 50 of them were members of the development process of the curriculum, and 10 cooperated in new media issues. At present 180 active authors are providing contents (learning objects) for VMC. Personal contacts of members of the project team with potential authors have proved to be the best way to success. Students receive a one-hour introduction and a consultation hour is held once a month. Our experience is that there are no problems from this side: they mainly work at home using internet connection. The whole curriculum is divided into four levels: Modules, Topics, Learning Units and Learning Objects. The Study of Human Medicine on the Medicine University of Graz is divided into 29 Modules, about 10 Tracks and about 20 "Special Study Modules". Each of these modules has its own topics. The Learning Units on the next level hold the Learning Objects for up to four lessons (45 minutes each). This arrangement is working well because there is a hundred percent compatibility to the study "in real life" and so the students don't get confused because of more than 4000 Learning Objects and find the important ones for their term very fast. …
- Published
- 2006
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