OPEN Hackathon at the TUM School of Medicine, Germany.

The OPEN Hackathon of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) 2020 set out to address challenges and potential solutions for medical education at the School of Medicine to kick off the 2020/21 winter semester. The event lasted 36 hours, during which medical students, teachers and staff members had the opportunity to tackle current problems in education and to develop co-created, customized solutions through creative teamwork for the School of Medicine at the TUM. The resulting solutions are now being realized and implemented in teaching. This paper describes the process and organization of the hackathon. Furthermore, the result of the evaluation of the event are described. In this paper, we aim to present the project as a valuable pioneer in the field of developing medical-educational topics within the framework of innovative methodological formats.

New concepts in neurology education: successful implementation of flipped classroom lectures.

In order to inspire and attract young people to Neurology, we must offer high-quality and attractive teaching! To improve neurological education at our Medical School (Technical University of Munich), we converted the main lecture into an e-learning concept using a flipped classroom model. Students had to prepare with a video and a text as well as answering multiple choice questions before each lecture. As a further incentive, students with ≥ 80% right answers in multiple choice questions received a bonus for the final exam. During the lectures, predominantely patient cases were discussed to apply, improve and enhance the previously acquired knowledge. The realignment of the main lecture in Neurology into a flipped classroom model was very successful and was further optimized in the following semesters based on the evaluations obtained for the new concept. Moreover, this enabled us to quickly switch to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, while still offering lectures of high quality. In addition, this new teaching concept attracts students for Neurology. Furthermore, the exemplary conversion of the Neurology main lecture to a flipped classroom concept also serves as best practice and motivation to adapt other courses in our faculty and far beyond.

Radiation oncology as part of medical education-current status and possible digital future prospects.

PURPOSE: Education as part of medical education is currently changing rapidly. Not least because of the corona crisis, more and more digital teaching formats and innovative teaching concepts such as the flipped classroom model are finding their way into teaching. We analyzed the acceptance and effectiveness of traditional teaching methods as well as the interest in innovative e­learning methods among medical students in the field of radiation oncology at the medical school of the Technical University of Munich. METHODS: We carried out an online-based survey as well as a knowledge test on all students from two terms who had completed the seminar series of radiation oncology. The survey comprised seven questions on the frequency of participation, acceptance, and judgment of the effectiveness in terms of learning and on a potential use of e­learning methods using a six-point Likert scale. The test consisted of 10 multiple-choice questions. RESULTS: Traditional teaching methods are largely accepted by students and most students consider the current learning format to be effective in terms of the teaching effect in the field of radiation oncology. However, only about 50% of all knowledge questions were answered correctly. The possible use of e­learning methods was judged critically or desired in roughly equal parts among the students. CONCLUSION: Traditional seminars enjoy a high level of acceptance among students. Effectiveness with regard to the internalization of content taught, however, should be increased. After all, the future seems to lie in the integration of e­learning in the form of educational videos and practical seminars.

How can communicative competence instruction in medical studies be improved through digitalization?

The teaching of communicative competence plays an increasingly important role in medical education. In addition to traditional teaching formats, such as role-plays with simulated patients, technology-based approaches become more important in medical education. Teaching materials are increasingly augmented by videos of simulated doctor-patient conversations. This combination allows the content of teaching materials to be demonstrated with video or for videos to create a basis for reflection activities. In addition, conversation videos can illustrate different qualities of clinical communication and serve as illustrative material for describing particular issues in more detail. In addition to teaching clinical communicative competence, the assessment of this competence also plays an important role in medical educational research. So far, this has mainly been conducted through direct observation using checklists or rating scales. Relatively little is known about the assessment of communicative competence using standardized online-based tests. Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) offer a promising approach in this respect. The BMBF-funded (BMBF = Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - Federal Ministry of Education and Research) joint project voLeA (Entwicklung videobasierter Lehr- und Assessmentmodule zur Gesprächskompetenz im Medizinstudium = Development of video-based teaching and assessment modules for communicative competence in medical studies) addresses these two issues. Specifically, the project is engaged in developing e-learning modules to promote communicative competence and an assessment of this competence using an SJT. The present paper focuses on the benefits of technology-based learning and assessment units for clinical communicative competence in medical studies, using the voLeA project as an example.