An Assemblage of Technologies for Multidisciplinary Online Health Informatics Education

Purpose: The course management system is often viewed as the mainstay for online education. However, online education requires a more comprehensive assemblage of technologies to facilitate active engagement and learning for the online students. The assemblage of technologies can be formed using a combination of social media and commercial applications. Social media applications have the benefit of enduring connections beyond completion of a course or program of study. Furthermore, most social media applications are free of charge. This is a financial benefit to both students and the university. Additionally, most social media applications have security settings to ensure the privacy of students. Moreover, students can create screen names to remain anonymous further ensuring privacy. Commercial applications such as a course management system have the advantage of technical support and permanence. Other commercial applications in the assemblage can include screen capture software, plagiarism checker, electronic medical records, virtual worlds, web conferencing software, e-portfolio, as well as student verification software. Commercial applications typically necessitate licensing agreements as well as annual renewal fees. In selecting and forming an assemblage of technologies, the primary goal should be to enhance student engagement and learning. The purpose of this project was to systematically identify and catalog technology used in the multidisciplinary online health informatics program offered by the School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI).  

Methods: To systematically identify and inventory the social media and commercial technologies used in a multidisciplinary informatics program.

Results: Commercial software and social media were broadly categorized as commercial course management software, plagiarism checking, student verification, voice over the Internet (VoIP), virtual reality, video capture, audio capture, social bookmarking, instant messaging, web conferencing, concept and idea presentation. Specific software or social media applications were assigned to a category. For example Moodle was assigned to the course management software category. Skpe and Oovoo were categorized as VoIP. Concept and idea presentation technologies included Prezi, Freemind, and CMap. Audacity was assigned to the audio capture category. Diigo was categorized as booking, 

Conclusion: The continuous advancement of technology requires constant awareness, evaluation, and appropriate incorporation into course curriculum to maximize student engagement. Technology should enhance learning and not burden either students or faculty. Social media applications are selected by the course faculty. Commercial products are selected by the Distance Education,  the  Office of Academic Affairs along with input from course faculty. Incorporation of social media and commercial products into course curriculum is at the expertise and discretion of course faculty. Students report positive learning experiences in using the application in completing course activities.