Spreckelsen Cord, Finsterer Sonja, Cremer Jan, Schenkat Hennig
Division of Knowledge-Based Systems, Department of Medical Informatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
J Med Internet Res. 2013 Aug 15;15(8):e169. doi: 10.2196/jmir.2623.
Curriculum mapping, which is aimed at the systematic realignment of the planned, taught, and learned curriculum, is considered a challenging and ongoing effort in medical education. Second-generation curriculum managing systems foster knowledge management processes including curriculum mapping in order to give comprehensive support to learners, teachers, and administrators. The large quantity of custom-built software in this field indicates a shortcoming of available IT tools and standards.
The project reported here aims at the systematic adoption of techniques and standards of the Social Semantic Web to implement collaborative curriculum mapping for a complete medical model curriculum.
A semantic MediaWiki (SMW)-based Web application has been introduced as a platform for the elicitation and revision process of the Aachen Catalogue of Learning Objectives (ACLO). The semantic wiki uses a domain model of the curricular context and offers structured (form-based) data entry, multiple views, structured querying, semantic indexing, and commenting for learning objectives ("LOs"). Semantic indexing of learning objectives relies on both a controlled vocabulary of international medical classifications (ICD, MeSH) and a folksonomy maintained by the users. An additional module supporting the global checking of consistency complements the semantic wiki. Statements of the Object Constraint Language define the consistency criteria. We evaluated the application by a scenario-based formative usability study, where the participants solved tasks in the (fictional) context of 7 typical situations and answered a questionnaire containing Likert-scaled items and free-text questions.
At present, ACLO contains roughly 5350 operational (ie, specific and measurable) objectives acquired during the last 25 months. The wiki-based user interface uses 13 online forms for data entry and 4 online forms for flexible searches of LOs, and all the forms are accessible by standard Web browsers. The formative usability study yielded positive results (median rating of 2 ("good") in all 7 general usability items) and produced valuable qualitative feedback, especially concerning navigation and comprehensibility. Although not asked to, the participants (n=5) detected critical aspects of the curriculum (similar learning objectives addressed repeatedly and missing objectives), thus proving the system's ability to support curriculum revision.
The SMW-based approach enabled an agile implementation of computer-supported knowledge management. The approach, based on standard Social Semantic Web formats and technology, represents a feasible and effectively applicable compromise between answering to the individual requirements of curriculum management at a particular medical school and using proprietary systems.
课程映射旨在对计划、讲授和所学课程进行系统调整，在医学教育中被视为一项具有挑战性且持续不断的工作。第二代课程管理系统促进包括课程映射在内的知识管理流程，以便为学习者、教师和管理人员提供全面支持。该领域大量定制软件表明现有信息技术工具和标准存在不足。
本文报告的项目旨在系统采用社会语义网的技术和标准，为完整的医学模型课程实施协作式课程映射。
引入了一个基于语义MediaWiki（SMW）的网络应用程序，作为亚琛学习目标目录（ACLO）引出和修订过程的平台。语义维基使用课程背景的领域模型，并提供结构化（基于表单）的数据输入、多视图、结构化查询、语义索引以及针对学习目标（“LO”）的评论。学习目标的语义索引依赖于国际医学分类的受控词汇表（ICD、MeSH）以及用户维护的民俗分类法。一个支持全局一致性检查的附加模块对语义维基进行补充。对象约束语言的语句定义了一致性标准。我们通过基于场景的形成性可用性研究对该应用程序进行了评估，参与者在7种典型情况的（虚构）背景下解决任务，并回答了一份包含李克特量表项目和自由文本问题的问卷。
目前，ACLO包含在过去25个月中获取的约5350个操作性（即具体且可衡量）目标。基于维基的用户界面使用13个在线表单进行数据输入，4个在线表单用于灵活搜索学习目标，所有表单均可通过标准网络浏览器访问。形成性可用性研究取得了积极成果（在所有7个一般可用性项目中的中位数评分为2（“良好”）），并产生了有价值的定性反馈，特别是关于导航和可理解性方面。尽管未被要求，但参与者（n = 5）发现了课程的关键方面（重复提及的相似学习目标和缺失的目标），从而证明了该系统支持课程修订的能力。
基于SMW的方法实现了计算机支持的知识管理的敏捷实施。该方法基于标准的社会语义网格式和技术，代表了在满足特定医学院课程管理的个别要求与使用专有系统之间的一种可行且有效适用的折衷方案。
