Open Educational Resources in Computational Biomedicine

Project summary

The field of biomedicine seeks to explain physiological and pathophysiological processes in humans at the molecular and individual level. The major goals of OERCompBiomed (Open Educational Resources in Computational Biomedicine) are to improve education in biomedicine by implementing novel courses in the form of open educational resources (OERs), and through research to increase knowledge of pedagogical design and learning analytics in relation to OERs. People educated in the field of biomedicine are essential for modern medical research and are therefore fundamental for the development of new and better diagnostic tools and treatment strategies for diseases. A characteristic of modern day medical research is the large amount of data that is generated relatively easily and is used to identify perturbations – ranging from the molecular to the whole body level - in patients. While its collection is essential for furthering medical advances, this data is challenging to work with and raises a number of ethical issues. In OERCompBiomed we introduce novel courses that provide students and personnel in biomedicine and related fields with the much sought after knowledge and skills that are required to handle appropriately two of the major challenges, namely computational analyses of the data per se, and awareness and handling of ethical issues arising from the ability of modern technologies to determine the molecular make-up of individuals at a population level, and the subsequent implications for disease prediction and life expectancy. In the long term, implementation of these courses in biomedical education programmes will contribute to improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as increasing awareness in the general population of the ethical challenges associated with modern medical research. In turn this will help members of the general public to make better decisions about their health. The development of OERs and the introduction of web-based courses have changed the way students acquire knowledge, how they are evaluated, and how educators teach. However, to develop OERs optimally, knowledge of and research in pedagogical design and learning analytics is required to adjust pedagogical tools to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for stakeholders. OERCompBiomed makes major contributions to this research field. Firstly, learning analytics forms an integral part of our OER development strategy, and perhaps even more importantly, after the OERs are established and the courses are running, the students’ digital activities and results will form the basis for research on learning analytics and for further development and adjustment of the OERs. The results we generate will contribute to shaping future teaching and learning, and will have impact far beyond biomedicine education and the Nordic countries. OERCompBiomed delivers five integrated intellectual outputs (IOs) that provide novel learning material in the form of three OERs/courses (Biomedical ethics, Translational digital pathology and Introduction to Computational Biomedicine and Machine Learning), and in the form of an intensive course (Summer School in Computational Biomedicine) with blended learning and virtual and physical mobility between the partner institutions. The fifth IO (Learning analytics) designs, implements and evaluates learning analytics of the other four IOs. The IOs will attract different groups of students and professionals both regionally and on a global scale. Study programmes in biomedicine and other relevant areas exist at hundreds of European universities, but in addition to this, the proposed OERs will attract professionals from various health care disciplines and from the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Within the participating academic institutions alone, our OERs are relevant for 250-300 students each year, and will be mandatory for subgroups of these students. From a European and global perspective we envision around 2000 participants annually. OERCompBiomed brings together dedicated experts in biomedical science, medical ethics, learning analytics, and educational technology. All participants are affiliated to five institutions of higher education: University of Bergen, Karolinska Institutet, University of Turku, University of Eastern Finland and the University of Southern Denmark. These institutions collaborate in an established network of Master’s programmes in biomedicine (NordBioMedNet) that has worked productively since 2013 to enhance the quality of biomedical education. In the long term, OERCompBiomed will impact upon the European population in two major ways: 1) Better health care through improved education of researchers engaged in biomedicine, and 2) Better education in general through novel insights into which pedagogical designs are best suited to optimize learning through OERs.