%0 Thesis %A McVey, Ruaidhri M. %D 2019 %T Evaluating Moodle In Undergraduate Obstetrics and Gynaecology. %U https://repository.rcsi.com/articles/thesis/Evaluating_Moodle_In_Undergraduate_Obstetrics_and_Gynaecology_/10816961 %R 10.25419/rcsi.10816961.v1 %2 https://repository.rcsi.com/ndownloader/files/19326716 %K Moodle %K Medical Education %K Obstetrics & Gynaecology %K Evaluation %K Undergraduate Students. %X

‘Medical education is a national strategic asset that reflects well on the country, attracts the brightest and best school leavers from home and abroad and caters for our health needs. We have not, alas, looked after medical education in a manner that allows us to reassure the public that all is well.’ Irish Medical Council, 2003

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, and within 10 years it had become a valuable learning resource for the field of medicine. With the aim of improving the undergraduate student experience, educators have experimented with a variety of information technologies for the delivery of medical education. Web 2.0 is helping students to ascertain their learning goals effectively.

Little evidence is available for the implementation of Moodle, a virtual learning environment, into an undergraduate obstetrics and gynaecology curriculum. This thesis demonstrates the integration of Moodle into the course, and the added value as it developed. Moodle was used to deliver a comprehensive online undergraduate curriculum in obstetrics and gynecology, in a multi-site Irish medical school setting in order to optimize clinical exposure for students. There is a paucity of evidence on reliably identifying medical students who are academically underperforming prior to high stakes examinations. Moodle has consistently demonstrated the ability to identify these struggling students

This body of work informs and empowers educators and students to develop their teaching and learning. This thesis provides a point from which future work may examine the learning styles and behaviors of underperforming students with a view to effective remediation. The implementation and evaluation of Moodle was deemed not to require formal Ethics Board approval.

%I Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland