Evangelia Mitsopoulou

Luke Woodham

Chara Balasubramaniam

Describing Diverse Resources in Medical Education

Using Metadata within the mEducator Project

Using Resources

Learning Content Management System

Web 2.0 ToolsSpecialist resources

Academic Institution

Sharing Resources

mEducator

• 3 year EU funded project• 14 partners from across Europe

Aim: To enable specialized state-of-the-art medical educational content of varying types to be discovered, retrieved, shared and re-used across European higher academic institutions.

How: By implementing and evaluating two different solutions

• A “mashup” platform that aggregates content published in isolated Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)• A federated architecture of LCMSs based on Semantic Web Services for search, interchange and delivery of learning objects

The mEducator Project

The Problem

• For a search function to discover resources it needs to know • Where to look• What to look for

• Given the diversity of resources, there are few common characteristics that search procedures can reliably look for

• Need to find some way of enabling resources to be searched and discovered

The Solution

• Need a common method of describing the resources for• Search• Discovery

• Metadata• Data about data• Describes the definition, structure and administration

of the contents of a resource, and provides a context to ease future usage

• A metadata scheme provides a formalised description of the learning resources, and ensures the use of common terms and fields between resources

The Collaborative/Methodology Process

• Regular on-line meetings

• Regular face-to-face meetings

• Collaborative documents e.g. spreadsheets, wikis

– Iterative approach gathering partners’ feedbacks

• Metamorphosis Tool for profile testing

• Feedback from relevant Deliverables of the project

• Research and Proposals in terms of project’s aim

Metadata Scheme Overview

Analyse existing standards Relevant fields from

existing standards

Identify additional pedagogical information

Explore requirements for repurposed content

Fields to describe repurposing history

Fields describing additional pedagogical

information

Identify any additional critical information

Additional fields

mEducator Metadata Scheme

Existing Standards Analysis

Existing Standards

IEEE LOM

Healthcare LOM

FOAF

Okkamid

DublinCore

AttentionXML

Proposed Metadata Fields

TitleResourceURLResource URNResourceLanguageMetadataLanguageResourceAuthorKeywordsCreationDateContentDescriptionTechnical DescriptionLearningResourceTypeDisciplineDiscipline Specialty

Repurposing Metadata

Pedagogical Metadata

Resource1

Resource2

Resource3

Course A

Course B

Resource4

Resource5

Resource2

•Educational Context

•Teaching Instructions

•Educational Objectives

•Learning Outcomes

•Assessment Methods

•Educational Prerequisites

Pedagogical Metadata Example

<med:Educational>

<LearningReasourceType>virtual patient</LearningReasourceType>

<EducationalContext>This author of this VP intended its use to be as a formative linear assessment Virtual Patient</EducationalContext>

<TeachingInstructions>This formative branched assessment focused VP is best used by students as a revision tool to recap particular learning objectives from a taught session. Or it could be used to supplement a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) session to cover objectives that might not have been covered during the PBL session</TeachingInstructions>

<EducationalObjectives>1) To investigate recognise and treat myocarditis 2) To interpret an ECG 3) To understand how an echocardiogram can help in diagnosis 4) To list the risk factors for cardiovascular disease 5) To recognise and treat a myocardial infarction 6) To appreciate the risk of cardiomyopathy as a sequela of myocarditis and treat it appropriately</EducationalObjectives>

<AssessementMethods>This is a branched formative assessment Virtual Patient which is intended to be used as a self-directed learning tool or as a supplement to PBL. This type of VP should take the student approximately 15 minutes to complete</AssessementMethods>

<EducationalPrerequisites>In order to play this VP successfully, the student must have a basic understanding in the area of cardiology - particularly the structure and function of the heart and an understanding of cardiovascular risk factors</EducationalPrerequisites>

<EducationalLevel>Preclinical Medical Student</EducationalLevel>

</med:Educational>

Additional critical information

• IPR issues– License Type– Date Granted– Requesting Entity

• Companion Resource

Further extensions/Open Issues

• Attention Metadata

– Capture user tagging

• Unique identification of the Author of the

resource

– FOAF profile

• Quality stamp

Metadata Scheme Structure Overview

Conclusions

• Anybody interested in learning more or getting involved in the mEducator community, please get in touch

• Associate membership is available, and is free to join

• For more details contact Maria Nikolaidou, mnikol@med.auth.gr

Healthcare LOM analysis