Research

The MERG Suite: Tools for discovering competencies and associated learning resources

Ravi Teja Bhupatiraju^1* , William R Hersh^1* , Valerie Smothers² , Michael Fordis³ and Peter S Greene²

¹  Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA

²  Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and MedBiquitous, Baltimore, MD, USA

³  Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Source Code for Biology and Medicine 2008, 3:7doi:10.1186/1751-0473-3-7

Published:	14 May 2008

Abstract

Background

As the demands for competency-based education grow, the need for standards-based tools to allow for publishing and discovery of competency-based learning content is more pressing. This project focused on developing federated discovery services for competency-based medical e-learning content.

Methods

We built a tool suite for authoring and discovery of medical e-learning metadata. The end-user usability of the tool suite was evaluated through a web-based survey.

Results

The suite, implemented as an open-source system, was evaluated to identify areas for improvement.

Conclusion

The MERG suite is a starting point for organizations implementing competency-based e-learning resources.