Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome Founded in 1991 Medicine and Bio-Engineering Departments Degrees in Medicine, Nursing, Dietetics and Bio-Medical Engineering 818 students, 90 tutors, 67 teachers, 26 post-graduate courses Teaching Hospital (15 departments- 124 beds) The most beloved by students (survey from Il Sole 24Ore, 26 giugno 2006) Student-centered and patient-centered Our website

Participants Number: 31 ( 29 females and 5 males) Age: from 28 to 65 Coming from: 20 per cent from the North of Italy, 53,33 per cent from the Center , 20 per cent from the South, 6,67 per cent from abroad Occupation: 90 per cent of the participants works in healthcare environments Motivation: most participants work as tutors in their university

Background As recipient of HP 2004 Mobility Grant and HP 2005 Technology for Teaching Grant, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome has carried out many projects to assess the use of wireless networks and portable devices (Pocket and Tablet PCs) for both classroom activities and professional training on the job. The two main programs were HISS (Hospital Information System for Students), which engaged Medicine, Nursing and Dietetics Students recording data at the bedside with Pocket PCs, and MoPS (Mobile Problem Solving), which was addressed to Engineering students. For more information on the projects see reference below. These programs generated a domino effect since many companion projects started in different departments, involving about 355 users in 3,5 years. The lesson learned is that students are much more skilled in using tecnologies than their tutors and this can lead to misunderstanding. HISS&MoPS

Goals The focus is on teaching and on metacognitive aspects of learning. Areas of inquiry are: - evaluation of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools in different learning scenarios (lesson/seminar/presentation, feedback/mentoring/advising, project works, assessment/examination) and for different skills (e.g., computation, critical thinking, communication); - HCI (Human Computing Interface) or studying the best interface for Pocket and Tablet Pcs and test of usability using Jakob Nielsen criteria;. - study of MMORPGs (Massive Multimedia Online Role Playing Games, for example World of Warcraft) or social web phenomena like Second like or MySpace to teach creative thinking; - Google-based-learning and other web tools for self-improvement and life-long learning.

List of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools

The Master is an initiative from: The Departments of ICT and Educational Research & The Continuous Education School Director of the Master: Prof. Paola Binetti, Department of Educational Research, Campus Bio-Medico University, tel. 39-06.22.54.12.12, fax ( 39) 06.22.54.17.51, [email protected] Technical Director of the Master: Prof. Michele Crudele, professor of Medical Informatics in Campus Bio-Medico University, tel. 39-06.22.54.12.60, [email protected]

From this experience emerged that although the tutorial network is more and more powerful (90 tutors for 819 students), a technological gap between tutors and students is evident. This was the reason why we created and developed the Master in E-Teaching and Tutorial Teaching

Methodology The course is blended since it includes activities both in the classroom and on-line on our e-learning platform, which is a customization of Moodle, an open source CMS (Content Management System) We chose Moodle for many reasons: free, open source (new modules always available), many users in the world, based on SCORM (international standard), customizable. Tutorial strategies and the integration of technological tools are seen under different perspectives: cognitivism, problem-based learning, costructivism (the learning philisophy which underlies Moodle)

Results Some quantitative and qualitative results are already available but many other benefits for both students and faculty are expected from this experimental program: on one side faculty will more efficiently make use of the resources that are already available to them; on the other side tutors will be able to critically and adequately integrate the students' information technology knowledge as tools in their instruction, so that they can enlist students’ interest on their side.

Other investigators Prof. Giulio Iannello, full professor of Informatics, Faculty of Engineering, tel. 39-06.22.54.12.61, [email protected] Dr. Maria Cinque, researcher, Faculty of Engineering, tel. 39-06.22.54.12.60, [email protected] Dr. Paola Anzilotti, researcher, Department of Educational Research, tel. 39-06.22.54.12.60, [email protected] Dr. Michela Noro, researcher, School of Continuous Education, tel. 39-06.22.54.12.60, [email protected]