Education: Oncology Online
The development of novel therapies and diagnostic tools depends heavily on translating basic knowledge into clinical solutions. To meet this goal, a new generation of investigators with a solid background in molecular and clinical oncology as well as the capacity to design and managing clinical trials is required. This can be fostered through appropriate training programs. Currently, there is limited capacity among existing programs that effectively integrate clinical and molecular oncology, and innovative approaches are needed to address this rapidly changing field. The target audience includes a heterogeneous population of investigators and researchers actively engaged in professional live and who live and work in geographically dispersed clinical and research facilities. This audience demands flexible curricula, engaging teaching approaches and asynchronous modes of instruction. Among the several educational approaches proposed as an alternative to conventional face-to-face teaching, e-Learning is able to offer flexibility and accommodate the time constrains of the trainees.
Oncology Online (OOL), an e-Learning program intended for medical students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and clinical fellows, was initiated in 2005 within the NCCR Molecular Oncology program. OOL's resources currently covers key topics of molecular and clinical oncology through the following three modules: hallmarks of cancer, tumor host interactions, and invasion & metastasis. Additional modules are currently under construction including "Oncogenic signaling", "Epigenetics", "Genomic instability", "DNA repair", and "Therapies". A number of novel e-Learning approaches are offered through these modules. For example, clinical oncology currently explores 6 clinical cases within the "Hallmarks of Cancer" module. Cased-based learning (CBL) also focuses on breast and kidney tumors and these cases are currently used by the Faculty of Biology & Medicine (FBM) at the University of Lausanne. In addition, article-based learning (ABL) offers three annotated articles on epigenetics and tumor immunology. The latter has been used to initiate Master students at the Faculty of Computer and Communication Sciences of EPFL to model the immune response to tumors. OOL’s content and learning activities have been customized for the students of EPFL and the FBM through portals (http://eplf.bio-med.ch and http://unil.bio-med.ch/).
OOL is developed by the Health Science e-Training Foundation (HseT - http://hset.org). HSeT has developed e-Learning, e-training and e-teaching activities to broad audiences and makes use of a sophisticated Learning Management System (LMS) that allows careful tracking and evaluation of student performance. This LMS serves as the foundation for a number of successful e-Learning initiatives including Oncology Online, Immunology Online, OCTAVE (Online Collaborative Training for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation), and Laboratory Online.