Learning Management System (LMS) for Integrating, Monitoring and Evaluating Professional Activities in a Medical Curriculum. The Experience at Humanitas University Medical School

V., Vinci; S., Oldani; A., Lozito; L., Montagna; A., Marsala; M., Pagliotta; F., Consorti

doi:10.18576/ijlms/090201

Learning Management System (LMS) for Integrating, Monitoring and Evaluating Professional Activities in a Medical Curriculum. The Experience at Humanitas University Medical School

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Office of Medical Education, Humanitas University, via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, 20090 Pieve Emanuele (MILAN) – Italy. Humanitas Clinical and Research Center – IRCCS-, via Manzoni 56, 20089 Rozzano (MILAN) – Italy.

² via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, Humanitas University, 20090 Pieve Emanuele (MILAN) – Italy.

³ Office of Medical Education, Humanitas University, via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, 20090 Pieve Emanuele (MILAN) – Italy

⁴ IT Department, Humanitas University, via Rita Levi Montalcini 4, 20090 Pieve Emanuele (MI-LAN) – Italy.

⁵ Department of Surgical Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale del Policlinico, 00161 Roma – Italy.

10.18576/ijlms/090201

Abstract

Background: Technology-enabled learning is increasingly important in teaching and learning medicine.
At Humanitas University we started using LMS (LMS@Hunimed) also for the organization, management, storage and evaluation of medical education and professionalizing activities.
We explored the perceived benefits and practical use of a LMS by The Office of Medical Education in organizing, managing and evaluating professionalizing activities.
Summary of the work: An evaluation questionnaire on LMS was submitted to all members of the OME (7 members) and the Student Office (2 members). Furthermore, Humanitas University register’s office provided a quantitative evaluation of the working hours by the members of OME regarding organization, management and assessments of E- Portfolio on LMS compared with Portfolio before LMS.
This study involves the testing of all four operational criteria on learning management system:
- Effectiveness – The performance in accomplishment of tasks
- Learning ability – The degree of learning to accomplish tasks.
- Flexibility – The adaptation to variation in tasks and environments.
- Attitude – The user satisfaction or suggestions for improvements.
We choose to use a System Usability Scale (SUS), a simple, ten-item attitude scale , to provide an assessments of usability. Summary of results: The use of LMS showed improvements in work efficiency through a significant decrease in working hours. Furthermore, a qualitative analysis of the System Usability Scale (SUS) questions showed that teachers felt moreconfident to use LMS in their daily tasks compared to when using a non-digital approach.
Conclusions: LMS@Hunimed showed positive results in providing functional direct access to messaging tools for communication and concrete didactic support for students, teachers and collaborators.

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