L'informatique: un outil remarquable pour l'enseignement de la médecine interne générale [The informatics: a remarkable tool for teaching general internal medicine].

INTERMED training implies a three week course, integrated in the "primary care module" for medical students in the first master year at the school of medicine in Lausanne. INTERMED uses an innovative teaching method based on repetitive sequences of e-learning-based individual learning followed by collaborative learning activities in teams, named Team-based learning (TBL). The e-learning takes place in a web-based virtual learning environment using a series of interactive multimedia virtual patients. By using INTERMED students go through a complete medical encounter applying clinical reasoning and choosing the diagnostic and therapeutic approach. INTERMED offers an authentic experience in an engaging and safe environment where errors are allowed and without consequences.

Noves funcionalitats per desenvolupar el treball en grup a dins de l'ACME

La plataforma ACME (Avaluació Continuada i Millora de l’Ensenyament) va ser creada l’any 1998 per un grup de professors del departament d’Informàtica i Matemàtica Aplicada. L’ACME es va concebre com una plataforma d’e-learning, és a dir, un sistema que mitjançant l’ús d’Internet afavorís l’aprenentatge, permeten la interactivitat entre l’alumne i el professor. La creació de la plataforma ACME tenia com a objectiu reduir el fracàs dels alumnes en les assignatures de matemàtiques, però degut a l’èxit que va suposar en aquestes, es va decidir incorporar la metodologia de treball ACME a altres disciplines com la programació, les bases de dades, la química, l’economia, etc. de manera que actualment es poden desenvolupar activitats ACME en moltes disciplines. Actualment l’ACME s’utilitza com a complement a les classes presencials, on el professor exposa de manera magistral els conceptes i resol algun exercici a mode d’exemple, per a que després l’alumne, utilitzant la plataforma ACME, intenti resoldre els exercicis proposats pel professor.L’objectiu d’aquest projecte és desenvolupar l’anàlisi, disseny i implementació de les modificacions necessàries a incorporar a la plataforma ACME per tal de millorar el gestor de grups, els exercicis Excel i finalment permetre el treball en grup. El projecte consta de tres parts: millorar les interfícies del professor i de l’alumne, la millora del exercicis Excel i la resolució d’exercicis en grup

Módulo para gestionar el modelo de usuario y permisos, el sistema de archivos y el de noticias en la plataforma CoSpace

CoSpace és una plataforma web dissenyada per proporcionar un espai virtual d’interacció i col•laboració entre formadors en comunitats virtuals. Es va originar com a resultat de les necessitats addicionals que van sorgir quan els professors que treballen en temes educatius en context de diversitat (en àrees de llenguatge, matemàtiques i ciències) van necessitar una eina per afavorir o recolzar la interacció i la col•laboració entre ells per compartir idees, experiències, objectes virtuals d’aprenentatge, entre d’altres, des d’una perspectiva actual de l’ús de la tecnologia i des d’una visió més propera a l’usuari final. Aquest paradigma promou la idea que les aplicacions han de ser concebudes per a usuaris poc experts i tenint en compte els principis d’usabilitat i accessibilitat.L’abast del projecte està definit per la necessitat de gestió per part dels professors, de la informació del seu perfil personal, permetent als usuaris la creació, edició, consulta i eliminació d’aquesta informació. També la necessitat de compartir arxius, publicar notícies entre comunitats de pràctica i, finalment, de la necessitat de gestionar els permisos d’usuari per tal que gestionin mòduls de la plataforma

CRM and higher education : developing a monitoring system to improve relationships in e-learning environments

Peer-reviewed

Broadening the CRM domain of application to higher educational (e-learning) environments

In this paper, we reflect about the broadening of the field of application of CRM from the business domain to a wider context of relationships in which the inclusion of non-profit making organizations seems natural. In particular, we focus on analyzing the suitability of adopting CRM processes by universities and higher educational institutions dedicated to e-learning. This is an issue that, in our opinion, has much potential but has received little attention in research so far.

Exploring new criteria to design materials for online education

Peer-reviewed

Enriching e-learning metadata through digital library usage analysis

Peer-reviewed

University teacher competences in a virtual teaching/learning environment : analysis of a teacher training experience

This paper attempts to shed light on the competencies a teacher must have inorder to teach in online university environments. We will relate a teacher trainingexperience, which was designed taking into account the methodological criteriaestablished in line with previous theoretical principles. The main objective of ouranalysis is to identify the achievements and difficulties of a specific formativeexperience, with the ultimate goal of assessing the suitability of this conceptualmethodologicalframework for the design of formative proposals aiming to contribute tothe development of teacher competencies for virtual environments.

Towards automated specifications of scenarios in enhanced learning technology

Recent standardization efforts in e-learning technology have resulted in a number of specifications, however, the automation process that is considered essential in a learning management system (LMS) is a lessexplored one. As learning technology becomes more widespread and more heterogeneous, there is a growing need to specify processes that cross the boundaries of a single LMS or learning resource repository. This article proposes to obtain a specification orientated to automation that takes on board the heterogeneity of systems and formats and provides a language for specifying complex and generic interactions. Having this goal in mind, a technique based on three steps is suggested. The semantic conformance profiles, the business process management (BPM) diagram, and its translation into the business process execution language (BPEL) seem to be suitable for achieving it.

An ontology to automated learning scenarios? an approach to its knowledge domain

Automation or semi-automation of learning scenariospecifications is one of the least exploredsubjects in the e-learning research area. There isa need for a catalogue of learning scenarios and atechnique to facilitate automated retrieval of stored specifications. This requires constructing anontology with this goal and is justified inthis paper. This ontology must mainlysupport a specification technique for learning scenarios. This ontology should also be useful in the creation and validation of new scenarios as well as in the personalization of learning scenarios or their monitoring. Thus, after justifying the need for this ontology, a first approach of a possible knowledge domain is presented. An example of a concrete learning scenario illustrates some relevant concepts supported by this ontology in order to define the scenario in such a way that it could be easy to automate.

Creating a research network for a successful e-portfolio design and implementation

The presence of e-portfolios in educational centres, companies and administrations has emergedstrongly during the last years by creating very different practices coming from different objectives and purposes. This situation has led researchers and practitioners to design and implement e-portfolios with little reference to previous knowledge of them; consequently, developments are disparate with many of the processes and dimensions used both in development and use being unnecessary complex. In order to minimize the inconveniences, unify these developmental processes and improve the resultsof implementation and use of e-portfolios, it seemed necessary to create a network of researchers, teachers and trainers coming from different universities and institutions of different kinds who are interested in the investigation and the practice of e-portfolios in Spain. Therefore, The Network on e-portfoliowas created in 2006, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and led by the UniversitatOberta de Catalunya. Besides the goals associatedwith the creation of this network and which wewanted to share with other European researchers and experts of other continents, we will also present in this paper some data concerned with the first study carried out on the use of e-portfolios in our country that shows where we are and which trends are the most important for the near future.

The practical application of e-Portfolio at the Open University of Catalonia : assessment of competence based learning

The paper presents the results of the piloting or pilot test in a virtual classroom. This e-portfolio was carried out in the 2005-2006 academic year, with students of the Doctorate in Information Society, at the Open University of Catalonia. The electronic portfolio is a strategy for competence based assessment. This experience shows the types of e-portfolios, where students show their work without interactions, and apply the competence-based learning theories in an interactive portfolio system. The real process of learning is developed in the competency based system, the portfolio not only is a basic bio document, has become a real space for learning with competence model. The paper brings out new ideas and possibilities: the competence-based learning promotes closer relationships between universities and companies and redesigns the pedagogic act.

Expanding the Customer Relationship Management scope to the non-profit organizations : an analysis focused on the e-university domain

Peer-reviewed

Combining Generic Programming and Service-Oriented Architectures for the Effective and Timely Development of Complex e-Learning Systems

Peer-reviewed