Open Educational Resources in Computational Biomedicine Erasmus Project

Project Title

Open Educational Resources in Computational Biomedicine

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Health and wellbeing

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) were to improve education in biomedicine by implementing novel courses in the form of open educational resources (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 today’s medical research is the large amount of generated and the further investigations and use of these data to develop new treatment therapies and diagnostic tools. 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 have developed 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. 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.
OERCompBiomed delivers three 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). These IOs has already attracted a number of students in biomedicine, and we foresee that they in the future will attract additional groups of students and professionals both regionally and on a global scale.

OERCompBiomed has brought 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 have since 2013 collaborated in an established network of Master’s programmes in biomedicine (NordBioMedNet) to enhance the quality of biomedical education. The now fulfilled Erasmus project has strengthened the network and provided a strong basis for future collaborations in the coming years.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 305437 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN & Country: NO

Project Partners

• KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
• TURUN YLIOPISTO
• ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO
• SYDDANSK UNIVERSITET