Modularity and Blended Methodology on Master Education for Donation and Transplantation

Abstract

Transplant Procurement Management and the University of Barcelona has offered a Master of Donation and Transplantation degree since 2004. The aim of this study is to analyze the number of participants, their profiles, and scores to evaluate improving measures introduced since 2011, when the modular structure was stablished. The data is organized in 3 groups: number of participants, profile, and scores in each module. The variables for the profile are gender, nationality, and background. According to the number of participants, 127 professionals were trained since 2011, with a decrease in the last classes (21; 20; 15). Regarding their profiles, from 2011 until 2016 the proportion of women was higher (63.13%). The background heterogeneity was an average of 4 different backgrounds in each edition, and medicine was most frequent background for students (58.27%). Participants were from 37 countries, mostly from the United States (45.6%) and Europe (40.9%). As for the scores, participants were evaluated in 4 modules (Donation, Transplantation, Management, and Tissue Banking), an internship, and a final master dissertation. The Donation module presented the lowest score (7.45/10) and the Transplantation module the highest (8.22/10). Considering that the main characteristics of the master's degree are the participants' internationality and heterogeneity, improvement measures must continue focusing on flexibility in the module selection and promoting the online modality.