Design of program modules forweb-based e-learning in education of medical informatics

Objective: Web-based e-learning environment is one of the recent innovative tools used inmedical informatics post-graduate education programs. With the help of these programsstudents may attend to many learning activities at any time, at anywhere interactively. In thisstudy an open sourced learning management system named Moodle, was implemented to anmedical informatics postgraduate program. A specific training curriculum was developed andperformed before starting the courses. The main purpose of the study is to show the effect ofthe training on the effective use of web based learning management systems and to evaluatethe users? feedbacks. It is also aimed to show the applicability of an open source learningManagement system in a medical informatics postgraduate program.Method: After an evaluation of different learning management systems Moodle was chosenas the most appropriate open source learning management system and the program wasdownloaded to a server. A specific training curriculum was prepared and a course was givento 9 users who were interested to Moodle and 3 trainees who practiced the software inpostgraduate medical informatics program. The effectiveness of training course was evaluatedwith post tests. The satisfaction of the users and the additional demands of the students relatedwith Moodle which run parallel to the actual program was evaluated with mini questionnairesand the requested procedures were completed.Results: Moodle was installed to the server without any problem. 80 percent of the traineesfound the training course satisfying. All of the modules that are used to manage theeducational activities and educational sources accepted to be adequate. Lack of an online chatand absence of an e-mail warning system was pointed out to be one of a few desirable tools inMoodle.Conclusion: Moodle is an open source learning management system that is easy to install anduse in a postgraduate education training program. It provides a flexible working platform andseveral modules can be added to the program without any major challenge. The educationalnecessities and their solutions will increase in variety as the similar studies is experienced.Keywords: Moodle, Learning Management Systems, Learning Objects, SCORM, Web-basedTraining