Objectives

 

  • Open education and innovative practices in a digital era
  • Development of relevant and high-quality skills and competences
  • Developing skills – supporting the use of digital technologies to improve pedagogies and assessment methods

The CLEVER project has the following specific objectives:

  • during the first 16 months, UMFIASI will create its own innovating pedagogy methods through technology-enhanced learning, such as 24 case-based learning (CBL) and virtual-patient cases (VPCs) to enable future physicians and healthcare professionals simulating important steps in the diagnostic and therapeutic process;
  • UPJS will supervise the 6 months long process of providing interactive platforms – with  the use of ICT – designed for competency training and for developing students’ critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills; the ICT platform will be hosted by UMFIASI during the second and the third year;
  • the transferring of know-how and best practices from universities which have already gone through a successful implementation of authentic, this task will be a more than an yearlong one and will be ruled by MU and UPJS in order to induce motivating, competency-based learning styles into the medical curriculum;
  • the second and the third year of the project will be dedicated to delivering and adapting the ICT platforms and interactive VPCs in the languages of the partners and associated educational networks with MU heaving the leading role.

Developing a medical competence requires an approach that differs from traditional teaching, where the students are mostly only passive recipients of isolated scientific information. An already proven method that recreates the environment of real-life medical practice and helps to develop the necessary practical skills is represented by CBL. VPCs can be understood as representations of real world problems in medicine. With only a little effort, it is possible and beneficial to adopt the anticipated results of the CLEVER project also by other fields of education whole in Europe, providing the possibility to mimic real life situations where students will have to apply such procedures in a safe online environment and learn through error to reinforce their learning. The CBL/VPCs methods are widely spread in curricula around the world and appreciated by teachers and students, see the references to existing studies:

[A] Poulton T et al.: Exploring the Efficacy of Replacing Linear Paper-Based Patient Cases in Problem-Based Learning With Dynamic
Web-Based Virtual Patients: Randomized Controlled Trial. J Med Internet Res 16(11):e240. DOI: 10.2196/jmir.3748

[B] Štourač P et al. (2014), AKUTNE.CZ Algorithms and SEPSIS-Q Scenarios as Interactive Tools for Problem Based Learning Sessions in Medical Education. MEFANET Journal 1(2):61-73. mj.mefanet.cz/mj-02130330

[C] Schwarz D et al (2013), Interactive Algorithms for Teaching and Learning Acute Medicine in the Network of Medical Faculties
MEFANET, J Med Internet Res 15(7):e135. DOI:10.2196/jmir.2590.

[D] Muntean V et al (2013), Language, culture and international exchange of virtual patients, Med. Educ. 13. doi:10.1186/1472-6920-13-21.

[E] Bateman J et al. (2013), Virtual patient design: exploring what works and why. A grounded theory study, Med. Educ. 47. doi:10.1111/medu.12151.

[F] Bateman J et al. (2012), Virtual patients design and its effect on clinical reasoning and student experience: a protocol for a randomised factorial multi-centre study, Med. Educ. 12. doi:10.1186/1472-6920-12-62.

Since there are no other similar implementations in Romania, this project will transfer know-how from MU and UPJS – gained during successfully solved projects focused on technology- enhanced learning in medical education – and implement the CBL/VPCs in the medical curriculum of UMFIASI effectively. The VPCs that will result will be used by all partners and can be exported to other European medical schools. CLEVER will engage with other partners and networks, particularly the RoEduNet and MEFANET, to increase the use of such platforms and methodologies and to assess their effectiveness and advantages on large populations of students and teachers. With endeavors of all three partners, the existing database of VPCs will be extended substantially. The learning content will be authored and reviewed in English, and later translated and presented within the cultures and languages of the participant countries.

Two different target groups will be addressed:

  • STG: students
  • TTG: teachers and specialists, who act as educators either in clinical disciplines or theoretical sciences.

 

The involvement of each target group will have three different levels.

 

  • Participant level: STG and TTG from participating institutions.
  • Regional level: STG and TTG from all medical schools in Romania, Czech and Slovakia (MEFANET, RoEduNet).

European level: STG and TTG from medical faculties of the participating institutions as well as associated networks and groups (through a series of dissemination activities).

 

  • STG, participant level: 6000
  • STG, regional level: 20000
  • STG, European level: 40000
  • TTG, participant level: 35
  • TTG, the regional level: 100
  • TTG, European level: 200.