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The aim of the paper is to give insight into MOOCs in general and to specifically describe a MOOC developed in the course of the SCOPE project "Screening for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) among older People across Europe". Findings The major target of the MOOC was the improvement of knowledge for a broad audience. The SCOPE MOOCs are freely accessible, structured in three modules, offer additional learning material and guarantee knowledge dissemination about aging and chronic kidney diseases. Message The MOOCs represent a contemporary example of how modern technology is supporting a transition to modern training in geriatrics.

SummaryBackground: Mycological KOH preparation is one of the most popular practical laboratory skills in dermatology. The study addresses the question whether an interactive simulation program enhances knowledge of students about this procedure. Methods: 166 students, 107 female and 59 male, participated. We separated our study in three phases: pretest, completing the simulation three times and posttest. In the pre-and post-test we recorded the number of correct steps of the mycological KOH preparation listed by the students. The full text feedback was explored by content analysis. Results: In the pre-test the students listed an average of 3.1 ± 2.2 correct steps, compared to 8.8 ± 1.2 correct steps after completing the simulation (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the improvement was significant for each individual step. There were no significant differences between male and female students. In content analysis of the feedback, positive statements prevailed with 78.3 %, compared to only 1.8 % critical items. Conclusion: Our study shows that an interactive computer simulation program of mycological KOH preparation results in a significant learning effectiveness as far as recall of the correct procedural steps is concerned. Furthermore, subjective acceptance by students is high.

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Abstract-In 2002 the Medical University of Graz (MUG) introduced its first Learning Management System (LMS).One of the first applications developed was a virtual microscope 1.0 (VM 1.0) to be used by students via a standard web browser. The basic idea was to offer the functionality of a microscope via an interactive application which is integrated within the LMS. The main advantages of that concept were saving costs, enhancing the flexibility for students and utilizing additional features and possibilities offered by new media. Cost saving was achieved by replacing hundreds of expensive physical microscopes by the virtual microscope, which can be used on any PC with a standard web browser. After more than 8 years the technology as well as the functionality of the VM 1.0 was now out-dated. We describe the stages to introduce a VM 2.0 within VMC/Moodle in order to help other universities who want to introduce a VM for their students to speed up the decision process and to avoid possible traps.