Article
Continued multi-disciplinary project-based learning (CM-PBL) in medical informatics: experiences from a five-years project
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Authors
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Christa Weßel
- Institut für Medizinische Informatik, Aachen
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Cord Spreckelsen
- Institut für Medizinische Informatik, Aachen
| Published: | September 6, 2007 |
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Outline
Text
Problem and project based learning represent approved methods to train students, graduates and post-graduates in scientific and other professional skills [Ref. 1], [Ref. 2], [Ref. 3]. For Medical Informatics with its multi-disciplinary research and development PBL is a promising training approach.
PBL is generally tailored to one or two term schedules [Ref. 4]. The students are trained on realistic scenarios in a broader context. We implemented Continued Multi-disciplinary Project Based Learning (CM-PBL) [Ref. 5] with a long-term research project on a web-based information system on hospitals as scenario for the realistic context [Ref. 6]. Experiences with project work in an international consulting company, literature work, training-courses in PBL and last not least the continued cooperation of the students and the teachers sustained the development of CM-PBL.
The students developed a project related application or module, or explored or evaluated a sub-project. A senior scientist was the research project manager and the teacher of the students. A second senior scientist cooperated as co-teacher. Each student attended the weekly team meetings and followed a fixed sequence of individual meetings with the teachers and hearings with group feedback. The team consisted up to 14 active members at a time coming from informatics, medicine, economics, and public health. The well communicated team policy and a data security and privacy concept fostered the team identity.
From April 2002 until April 2007 thirty students successfully finished their work: 16 student’s research projects in medical informatics, 4 diploma theses in computer science, 4 (plus 2 nearly finished) PhD theses in medicine and 4 trainee's projects. Six students abandoned their work due to time management problems or an illness.
Formative assessment and evaluation showed a considerable improvement of the students’ skills and a high participant satisfaction. The comparison of CM-PBL with other methods will have to investigate resources, teachers' qualifications and participants' outcome.
Literatur
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- Weßel C. ISG Research Group. Continued Multi-disciplinary Project-based Learning (CM-PBL) 2002-2007. Project Report. Aachen: RWTH Aachen, Department of Medical Informatics 2007.
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- Weßel C, Weymann F, Spreckelsen C. A Framework for the Web-based Multi-method Evaluation of a Web-based Information System on Hospitals. In: Löffler M, Winter A (Hrsg.) 51. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie (GMDS). Klinische Forschung vernetzen. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. Doc 06gmds015 http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2006/06gmds226.shtml Published: 01-09-2006
