In 2002 the Virtual Medical Campus Graz (VMC), the eLearning portal of the Medical University of Graz (MUG), was launched. Since 1 Oct 2010 the primary learning management system is VMC/Moodle. It currently holds more than 10,600 unique learning objects, and serves more than 4,300 students from three studies. We introduce the concept and its technical implementation of virtual lessons within the study of the diploma study human medicine. Once the eLearning content is created, the process is fully automated from the teachers’ point of view. This includes generation of the virtual lessons for the enrolled students and the transmission of grades to our central course administration system MEDonline. No further administrative interaction by the teachers are needed. Teachers can fully concentrate on continuously updating of the virtual content and can answer questions, which students might have during execution of the virtual lesson.
A new Moodle module supporting automatic verification of VHDL-based assignmen...
The seamless integration of virtualized lessons with a fully automated workflow into Moodle
1. The seamless integration of virtualized lessons with a fully automated workflow into the LMS VMC/Moodle Herwig Rehatschek, MoodleMoot, 24 February 2011
6. Statistics VMC/Moodle (2) Tests (992) (3815) (301) (1430) (445) (47) (199) (71) (23) (37) (58) 1,875 Web based trainings (WBT) with 82,857 questions
7. Modular curriculum human medicine Summer semester Winter semester NBI4a+4b NBI4a+4b NBI4a+4b NBI4a+4b NBI4a+4b NBI4a+4b M22 M21 M20 M19 SSM M23 5. Track M20 M19 SSM M23 M22 M21 3. Track SSM M23 M22 M21 M20 M19 1. Track M23 M22 M21 M20 M19 SSM 6. Track M21 M20 M19 SSM M23 M22 4. Track M19 SSM M23 M22 M21 M20 2. Track time slot 6 time slot 5 time slot 4 time slot 3 time slot 2 time slot 1 Time slots – block of five weeks where one module runs Accompanying Lectures – lectures offered for one semester parallel to modules with no overlap Track – students visit modules from one track In each track are approx. 50 students
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9. Organizational Workflow for virtual lessons MEDonline lecture administration curricula administration of exams results of exams VMC/Moodle Content for the lectures WBT exams synchronisation of virtual courses with MEDonline automatic transfer of WBT results at the end of lectures
DIPLOMA STUDIES Diploma Program Medicine Diploma Program Dentistry Master‘s Program Nursing Science POSTGRADUATE Doctoral Program Medical Sciences PhD-Program UNDERGRADUATE Bachelor‘s Program Nursing Science UNIVERSITY TRAINING COURSES (ULGs) Public Health Medizinische Führungskräfte Interdisziplinäre Frühförderung & Familienbegleitung ULG für Ärztinnen und Ärzte im öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienst Dermoscopy Master in kardiorespiratorischer Physiotherapie Klinische Prüfärztin/Klinischer Prüfarzt Clinical Trial Specialist Breast Care Nurse Prothetik Sonderausbildung in der Anästhesiepflege Sonderausbildung in der Kinderintensivpflege Sonderausbildung in der Intensivpflege Sonderausbildung in der Pflege bei Nierenersatztherapie Sonderausbildung in der Pflege im Operationsbereich Medizinische Genetik
ACTIVITIES AND LEARNING MATERIALS WBTs (web based trainings) 1,430 tests with 69,866 questions 455 lessons with 12,991 questions ----------------------------------------- 1,885 WBTs with a total of 82,857 questions SPECIAL LEARNING MATERIALS SWF – flash (shockwave) animations, simulations SCORM content packages
EXAMPLE 7th and 8th SEMESTER currently 300 students human medicine / year curriculum organized in tracks <KLICK #1> each track holds 50 students (some semesters have only 3 tracks) <KLICK #2> normally students stay within a track and execute modules sequentially <KLICK #3> each semester organized in three time slots á 5 weeks – where modules are offered <KLICK #4> to make it really complicated: accompanying lectures (offered over one semester
TECHNICAL REALIZATION before: difference accompaying material virtual lessons ACCOMPANYING MATERIAL blended learning as it is commonly used normal lessons teachers put additional eLearning material on LMS Hence: „eLearning as usual“ VIRTUAL LESSONS special concept of the MUG virtual lessons = fully virtualized lessons no presence parts! <KLICK #1> virtual lectures is the topic of interest now
WORKFLOW OF VIRTUAL LESSONS 2 separate (!) systems! Connected via interface (next transparency) <KLICK #1> System 1 – MEDonline maintenance of curriculum, exam results and grades <KLICK #2> System 2 – LMS VMC/Moodle content for the lessons WBTs – multiple choice questions VIRTUAL LESSONS teacher / new virtual lesson new theme created within corresponding VMC/Moodle course virtual content to be created (at least one document + 1 WBT) <KLICK #3> virtual Moodle courses synchronized with MEDonline (titles + unique IDs are transmitted) VMC/Moodle is the leading system planning of the curriculum / virtual lessons are planned as presence lessons when students are enrolled VMC/Moodle synchronizes daily virtual lessons are displayed for those students who are enrolled in MEDonline students execute virtual lessons (WBTs) <KLICK #4> results of WBTs are transmitted back to MEDonline every day and one last time when virtual course ends
MOMOS = MEDonline interface connects MEDonline + VMC/Moodle; is part of Moodle MOMOS is the active part MEDonline serves as data source + sink NO changes have been applied to MEDonline (complicated!!) implemented in PHP connection to Oracle database of MEDonline via OCI8
ADMINISTRATION INTERFACE OF MOMOS <KLICK #1> each line corresponds to one virtual lesson; each virtual lesson consists at least of one WBT and one learning document WBTs must be executed by students WHITE background: active virtual lesson RED background: inactive (currently not offered because e.g. module is not offered) <KLICK #2> start date to be received from MEDonline, end date is set semi-automatically: usually end of time slot (modules) or semester (accompanying lectures) Daily synchronisation of with MEDonline (results, enrolled students) <KLICK #3> Time machine for testing purposes
CONNECTION MEDonline VMC/Moodle (done via IDs!) EXAMPLE <KLICK #1> MEDonline / planned lecture „sv1 spezielle angiologische Therapieverfahren“ date (3.3.2009 – 3 March 2009) / time (irrelevant!) / virtual + „CBT Abhaltung“ virtual <KLICK #2> learning unit in VMC/Moodle containing the WBTs for this virtual lecture this learning unit is assigned to the course (last slide) in VMC/Moodle „ course“ receives then the start dates
STUDENTS VIEW of the virtual lessons <KLICK #1> each virtual lessons generates a line entry in the task list of the students who are registered for this virtual lesson Black text: title of virtual lesson blue text: WBTs contained within the virtual lessons (can be more than one – results are accumulated); one result – mean value – per virtual lesson is transmitted start date from MEDonline transmitted to course (ID!!)!! = virtual lesson appears in students task list end date until this date the WBTs must be executed. results are transmitted back to MEDonline at end date/midnight automatically
HIGH STABILITY AND AVAILABILITY virtual lessons must be executed by students within a certain timeframe! high pressure on MUG for availability cluster configuration with active/active cluster, two load balancers and 36 TB SAN storage (EVA 6000) NO FAULTS since pilot phase and introduction WS 2010 no single serious fault heavy load: 100,000 activities in average a day, 162,000 grades / 1,721 students executed WBTs of virtual lessons OUTSOURCING OF INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT good decision! deep know-how of Moodle internals necessary! company: eDaktik / Hruska (also author of paper) can be emphasized! necessary: one technical person firm in database know-how and Moodle (PHP) programming
BLENDED LEARNING CONCEPT OF MUG accompanying material partial virtual; eLearning as usual virtual lessons 100% virtual, no lessons in presence, can be executed purely virtually; VIRTUAL LESSONS TECHNICALLY FULLY AUTOMATED planning - registration – generation of tasks for students – transmission of results – calculation of grades TEACHERS can concentrate on content itself update! creation of new materials! answer individual questions of students