The Virtual University for Occupational Health Care (VUOHC) is a collaborative effort of five medical faculties in Finland (the universities of Helsinki, Eastern Finland, Oulu, Tampere and Turku) and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. Universities offer training for about 800 physicians specialising in occupational health and their about 350 tutor physicians.

VUOHC offers about 50 courses in Moodle learning environment, varying from tutored eLearning and blended learning to self-study and case-based courses. All universities offer courses, so there are many authors with different styles. The goal of this study was to help teachers, other authors and eLearning specialists to do high-quality and coherent courses.

A quantitative study was made to examine the quality of the VUOHC courses. Altogether 15 tutored and 10 self-study courses were evaluated. 35 quality criteria were defined and divided into administrative, technical and content questions (see figure below and video). The focus of the criteria was in the course design, structure and instructions.

The evaluation test was made as a quiz in Moodle. The criteria were formulated as questions and if the quality criterion was fulfilled the course got 1 point, if only partly 0,5 points and if not 0 points (see examples in "more detail"). Some questions had different options, but the scale was still from 0 to 1 point (see "more detail"). The quiz was build so, that after the test there was instant feedback and suggestions on how to improve the course.

In the figure below are all the quality criteria questions and the mean of answers in 25 evaluated courses. The results will guide how to improve the courses (like the information about evaluation is needed more, as are responses to feedback and instructions for tutor physicians) and where things are ok (like the course summary and information about authors are extensive and there is often extra material).

Five of the criteria fall under 0,3 points (in red), 12 are between 0,31 and 0,70 points (in yellow) and the rest have over 0,70 points (in green). The mean of all is 0,61 points which indicate that the courses are in pretty good shape, but there are still many things to improve.

The quality criteria and test tool are still under construction. They have been tested and reworked in two workshops together with teachers and other course authors. In the workshops, participants have been given instructions and a test tool for working. After testing, feedback has been gathered and the criteria and instructions have been improved for the next workshop. There will still be three workshops before the test tool and criteria will be available to all teachers and other authors.

In the future, we hope this tool will be used in every course. Our next challenge is to include more substance quality in the criteria.

A quantitative analysis and an easy tool helps to enhance the quality of web courses.

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• moodle.tthvyo.fi