scholarly journals Beyond xMOOCs in Healthcare Education: Study of the Feasibility in Integrating Virtual Patient Systems and MOOC platforms

Author(s):  
Natalia Stathakarou ◽  
Nabil Zary ◽  
Andrzej A. Kononowicz

Background: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an emerging method of online teaching. However in the field of healthcare education their technology is not adopted yet. Reaching beyond the xMOOC type of courses in order to foster interactivity in the healthcare education requires domain specific software. Virtual Patients (VPs) have been integrated in the past with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) but extending MOOCs with VPs has not yet been discussed. Objective: To investigate the technical possibilities of integrating VPs with MOOCs for the purpose of discovering a pragmatic basis were the potential pedagogical benefits can be later studied. Methods: We selected OpenEdx and Open Labyrinth as examples of a MOOC platform and of a VP system. We conducted a literature review to identify technical requirements and e-learning standards apt for the integration. One fundamental requirement was prototyped and verified by use cases. Results: A Single–Sign on mechanism connecting Open Labyrinth with OpenEdx, employing the IMS LTI standard, has been successfully implemented and verified. Conclusion: We investigated the technical perspective of integrating VPs in MOOCs, aiming to set a base for future investigation on the topic. The results point out new opportunities arising from the infrastructure of MOOCs for integrating specialized software aiming to support the healthcare education.

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Stathakarou ◽  
Nabil Zary ◽  
Andrzej A. Kononowicz

Background: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are an emerging method of online teaching. However in the field of healthcare education their technology is not adopted yet. Reaching beyond the xMOOC type of courses in order to foster interactivity in the healthcare education requires domain specific software. Virtual Patients (VPs) have been integrated in the past with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) but extending MOOCs with VPs has not yet been discussed. Objective: To investigate the technical possibilities of integrating VPs with MOOCs for the purpose of discovering a pragmatic basis were the potential pedagogical benefits can be later studied. Methods: We selected OpenEdx and Open Labyrinth as examples of a MOOC platform and of a VP system. We conducted a literature review to identify technical requirements and e-learning standards apt for the integration. One fundamental requirement was prototyped and verified by use cases. Results: A Single–Sign on mechanism connecting Open Labyrinth with OpenEdx, employing the IMS LTI standard, has been successfully implemented and verified. Conclusion: We investigated the technical perspective of integrating VPs in MOOCs, aiming to set a base for future investigation on the topic. The results point out new opportunities arising from the infrastructure of MOOCs for integrating specialized software aiming to support the healthcare education.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Jian ◽  
Cheng Yang

In this article, the authors provide a new approach to massive open online course: project based case learning. Although there are many online teaching websites, such as Coursera and Edx, most of the courses are video based. That is, students learn knowledge through watching lecture videos. This method may apply to theoretical subjects, but for engineering courses—since they have strong practical background—watching videos is not an effective way for these courses. In order to solve this problem, the authors offer this new approach: that is, students learn knowledge by playing as different roles and doing and concluding different tasks themselves. And all tasks form a whole project. This project based case learning method uses “learning-by-doing” as a central theme and E-learning as a carrier. Compared with video based learning, this new method is a combination of theory and practical operation that enable the students to master the knowledge in engineering subjects more thoroughly and profoundly.


Author(s):  
Anne-Mette Nortvig ◽  
René B Christiansen

<p class="3">This literature review seeks to outline the state of the art regarding collaboration between educational institutions on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) launched in Europe and in the US for the past 10 years. The review explores enablers and barriers that influence national institutional MOOC collaboration, and looks into how existing knowledge about institutional collaboration on e-learning can be used in MOOC collaboration. The review is based on a literature search in databases and on snowballing techniques. It concludes that collaboration on MOOCs can be advantageous in terms of ensuring quality and innovation in the common learning designs, and that—in order to succeed—such projects need strategic and institutional support from all partners involved. Moreover, the review points out barriers concerning the reluctance of individual institutions to engage in national collaboration due to fear of potential loss of their own national branding and the teachers’ hesitancy or passive resistance to new educational platforms and formats.</p>


Author(s):  
José Carlos Paiva ◽  
José Paulo Leal ◽  
Ricardo Alexandre Peixoto de Queirós

This chapter presents the architecture and design of Enki, an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for learning programming languages on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This environment can be used as a tool by a Learning Management System (LMS) and a typical LMS such as Moodle can launch it using the Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) API. Student authentication tokens are passed via LTI, thus integrating Enki in the single sign-on domain of the academic institution. The proposed tool has a web user interface similar to those of reference IDEs, where the learner has access to different integrated tools, from viewing tutorial videos, to solving programming exercises that are automatically evaluated. Enki uses several gamification strategies to engage learners, including generic gamifications services provided by Odin and the sequencing of educational resources. The course content (videos, PDFs, programming exercises) is progressively disclosed to the learner as he successfully completes exercises. This is similar to what happens in a game, where new levels are unlocked as the previous are completed, thus contributing to the sense of achievement.


Author(s):  
Konstantinos Gkyrtis ◽  
Maria Gelastopoulou ◽  
Vassilis Kourbetis

The Institute of Educational Policy, seeking to realize inclusive policies and practices planned the project: “Design and Development of Universally Accessible Educational Material.” Its objectives are the development of universally designed digital educational materials for nursery primary and secondary school students with disabilities or special educational needs. The project focuses on developing new open source digital educational material and software for special education in Greece, adopting and using the popular platform OpenEdX of asynchronous e-learning that allows the organization of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), aimed at distance learning and training of the teachers of general and special education.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Kumar ◽  
Shweta Nishad Brahmbhatt

This chapter aims to provide an up-to-date snapshot of the current state of application called MOOCs, which are one of the subset of e-Learning. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) provide a new way of learning, which is open, participatory, distributed and lifelong. Various premier universities of the world are now offering courses in the form of MOOCs. The MHRD, Government of India has also started a MOOCs platform called SWAYAM. This chapter covers the definition of MOOCs, its features and different MOOC platforms being used for e-learning i.e. edX, Coursera, SWAYAM, Udacity.


This chapter covers the field of e-learning. The authors explain what e-learning is and what tools are currently available. The chapter will contain examples of said tools with information about whether the tools are useful for people with dyslexia. The MOOC (massive open online courses) is the most widely used and will be covered in detail. At the end of the chapter, the authors will also provide examples of emerging trends in the area of e-learning.


Author(s):  
Triloki Pant ◽  
Swati Pant

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have evolved in past decade and become one of the prominent parts of the higher education system. The MOOCs provided a promising platform to aspirants who wanted to study further to either enhance their educational status or learn new technologies. With the evolution of MOOC, many platforms started to offer such courses, and many of them are not free as these courses need to register with some nominal fee. The role and need of libraries come at this point for MOOC courses as the courses are bundled with corresponding study material. The print library needs to assist e-library so that it may be compatible with the MOOCs and corresponding resources. The technological shift from print to e-library has a great impact on e-learning followed by MOOCs; however, the issue of MOOC libraries and resources is yet to be resolved to ensure the availability to all the users. The chapter deals with the need of library for MOOCs, its structure and technology shift from print library to e-library, along with the differentiation between e-learning and MOOCs.


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