Team-based Learning in Intensive Course Format for First-year Medical Students

Aim To examine the impact of team-based learning (TBL) on educational outcomes in the first year of the curriculum of the Medical University of Vienna. Methods TBL was first offered to students as a singlegroup exercise to illustrate the value and dynamics of a learning team. In a second step, TBL was provided in an intensive course format with six 2-hour sessions over a 3- day period as an elective course covering the material of a critical teaching block. Students’ responses to the program and the impact on the final exam were analyzed. Results Out of 1417 eligible students, 386 participated in 8 parallel courses offered in the TBL block. The reaction of students to TBL was highly positive. Using the final exam as an outcome measure, 220 students who completed the intensive courses had a 25.3% higher score (non-TBL vs TBL students: 22 ± 9 vs 28 ± 9 points) in the TBL block. They also had a 16.5% higher score (non-TBL vs TBL students: 94 ± 29 vs 109 ± 26 points) in the remaining 5 non-TBL blocks of the year. Conclusions TBL in an intensive course format seems to be especially attractive for the best students of the year, making them even more successful in the key exam. Even the students who usually learned alone highly appreciated learning in teams, thereby developing the understanding and skills needed to work productively in task-groups

If a thing's worth doing is worth doing well, why do we accept doing a poor job?

2011 | Richard Marz (Wien

ZFHE - Looking back 36 Years

The journal known today as the Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung (Journal for Higher Education Development) was founded in 1977 as a newsletter of the ÖGHD (Austrian Society for Didactics in Higher Education). Over the years it has under­gone quite a few changes, which makes for an interesting story. Many of these changes reflect the technological developments which have changed publishing over the last four decades. But even more important in making the journal what it is today were the different talents and interests of those responsible for its content and appearance over the years. 17.02.2014 | Gottfried S. Csanyi & Richard Marz (Vienna

Tuning research competences for Bologna three cycles in medicine:report of a MEDINE2 European consensus survey

Medical curricula, like healthcare systems and medical practice, have a strong cultural component and vary considerably between countries. Increasing mobility of medical graduates, and increasing pressure to ensure they are all fit for practice, have highlighted an urgent need to establish common ground in learning outcomes at all stages of training. A research-based approach, developed by the Tuning project, was used previously by the MEDINE Thematic Network to gain consensus on core learning outcomes/competences for primary medical degrees (www.tuning-medicine.com), but no consensus was reached for learning outcomes relating to research. As part of MEDINE2, a focussed Tuning project was undertaken to explore opinions on more detailed core learning outcomes in research for all three Bologna cycles (Bachelor, Master, and Doctor). Responses from 417 stakeholders, representing 29 European and 13 non-European countries, revealed a relatively high degree of consensus. The findings strongly suggest that these stakeholders think that learning outcomes related both to ‘using research’ and ‘doing research’ should be core components of medical curricula in Europe. The challenge now, however, is to promote further local and international discussion on these issues, and to find ways of achieving these competences within the context of already crowded medical curricula

Charakteristika der StudienanfängerInnen des Medizinstudiums in Wien - Evaluation des supportiven Unterrichtsprogramms SOL

Fragestellung: Berichtet wird über die Evaluation der Effektivität des supportiven Unterrichtsangebotes "self organized learning" (SOL), das seit 2002 in den ersten Wochen des Medizinstudiums in Wien eingerichtet wurde. Ziel ist, die Grund-kenntnisse in den naturwissenschaftlichen Fächern zu verbessern und die Studierenden in die Lage zu versetzen, Wissenslücken selbst zu diagnostizieren und selbstständig zu füllen. Zu diesem Zweck wurden in Gruppen von 15 Studierenden je eine Problemstellung aus den Fächern Physik, Chemie und Biologie erarbeitet. Die Vorgangsweise war an das problemorientierte Lernen angelehnt. Methode: Am Ende des Semesters wurden die Studierenden (N=1090) retrospektiv hinsichtlich ihrer Erfahrungen mit diesem Unterrichtsangebot befragt. 197 Studierende hatten eingewilligt, dass Ihre Daten mit den Prüfungsergebnissen in Beziehung gebracht werden. Ergebnisse: Keinen Einfluss haben Geschlechtsunterschiede, hingegen unterschieden sich die Gruppen in mehrfacher Weise in Abhängigkeit von ihrer Mutter-sprache. Die Ergebnisse der Regressionsanalyse (forwards and backwards) zeigen einen Zusammenhang der Angaben im Fragebogen mit den Prüfungsergebnissen: jene Studierenden, die bereits in der Schule vermehrt Unterricht in Chemie hatten, zeigten mehr Interesse an naturwissenschaftlichen Fächern, aber auch ein größeres Problembewusstsein: Sie empfanden den Themenblock 3 mit naturwissen-schaftlichem Schwerpunkt als schwieriger, nahmen vermehrt an SOL teil und hatten ein besseres Prüfungsergebnis. 12.02.2005 | Oskar Frischenschlager, Karl Kremser & Richard Marz (Wien

Editorial: Mentoring at European universities - New Wine into Old Wineskins?

14.02.2014 | Richard März (Wien), David Taylor (Liverpool) & Dieter Euler (St. Gallen

Students as peer tutors and mentors

Time is limited and there are many benefits, for students and their teachers, when learners become more deeply involved in the education and support of their peers. We describe a training programme that helped students develop the skills and insight they need to fulfill these roles. In the three-day workshop we modeled a coherent educational approach. We used a wide variety of instructional methods, including large and small group activities as well as an Objective Structured Teaching Exercise (OSTE). At the end of the workshop each participant had a profound understanding of the role and potential of a mentor and felt more comfortable about extending and developing their teaching. In health professions education in particular the role of the mentor is to help students cross barriers and boundaries to become new members of their chosen profession. 14.02.2014 | David Taylor (Liverpool), Elizabeth K. Kachur (New York), Angelika Hofhansl & Richard März (Vienna

Assembling highly repetitive Xanthomonas TALomes using Oxford Nanopore sequencing

Background: Most plant-pathogenic Xanthomonas bacteria harbor transcription activator-like effector (TALE) genes, which function as transcriptional activators of host plant genes and support infection. The entire repertoire of up to 29 TALE genes of a Xanthomonas strain is also referred to as TALome. The DNA-binding domain of TALEs is comprised of highly conserved repeats and TALE genes often occur in gene clusters, which precludes the assembly of TALE-carrying Xanthomonas genomes based on standard sequencing approaches. Results: Here, we report the successful assembly of the 5 Mbp genomes of five Xanthomonas strains from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing data. For one of these strains, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) PXO35, we illustrate why Illumina short reads and longer PacBio reads are insufficient to fully resolve the genome. While ONT reads are perfectly suited to yield highly contiguous genomes, they suffer from a specific error profile within homopolymers. To still yield complete and correct TALomes from ONT assemblies, we present a computational correction pipeline specifically tailored to TALE genes, which yields at least comparable accuracy as Illumina-based polishing. We further systematically assess the ONT-based pipeline for its multiplexing capacity and find that, combined with computational correction, the complete TALome of Xoo PXO35 could have been reconstructed from less than 20,000 ONT reads. Conclusions: Our results indicate that multiplexed ONT sequencing combined with a computational correction of TALE genes constitutes a highly capable tool for characterizing the TALomes of huge collections of Xanthomonas strains in the future

Prüfungswesen an österreichischen medizinischen Universitäten – Überblick 2007

Seit 1995 war die „Grazer Konferenz - Qualität der Lehre" Diskussionsforum für Curriculum-Entwicklung der österreichischen medizinischen Universitäten. Ein Schwerpunkt der 11. Konferenz 2007, war Stand und Entwicklung des Prüfungswesens. Anhand von 10 Fragen erläuterten Vertreter der Universitäten das Vorgehen um gesetzlichen Auflagen sowie lokalen Notwendigkeiten Rechnung zu tragen. Obwohl die Überprüfung des Studienfortschritts sowie die Qualtitätskontrolle des Prüfungswesens unterschiedlich implementiert wurden, ist die Erfüllung internationaler Standards Ziel aller Universitäten. 15.11.2007 | Herbert Plass (Wien), L. Schuwirth (Maastricht), M. Killer (Salzburg) et al

Computer literacy and attitudes towards e-learning among first year medical students

BACKGROUND: At the Medical University of Vienna, most information for students is available only online. In 2005, an e-learning project was initiated and there are plans to introduce a learning management system. In this study, we estimate the level of students' computer skills, the number of students having difficulty with e-learning, and the number of students opposed to e-learning. METHODS: The study was conducted in an introductory course on computer-based and web-based training (CBT/WBT). Students were asked to fill out a questionnaire online that covered a wide range of relevant attitudes and experiences. RESULTS: While the great majority of students possess sufficient computer skills and acknowledge the advantages of interactive and multimedia-enhanced learning material, a small percentage lacks basic computer skills and/or is very skeptical about e-learning. There is also a consistently significant albeit weak gender difference in available computer infrastructure and Internet access. As for student attitudes toward e-learning, we found that age, computer use, and previous exposure to computers are more important than gender. A sizable number of students, 12% of the total, make little or no use of existing e-learning offerings. CONCLUSION: Many students would benefit from a basic introduction to computers and to the relevant computer-based resources of the university. Given to the wide range of computer skills among students, a single computer course for all students would not be useful nor would it be accepted. Special measures should be taken to prevent students who lack computer skills from being disadvantaged or from developing computer-hostile attitudes