Development of a web-based, virtual laboratory for medical training

Programming of an e-learning platform with responsive design, Zend Framework + PHP

The University Hospital Frankfurt commissioned eWorks to implement an interactive learning platform for medical training in the field of laboratory diagnostics. The learning platform offers lecturers and medical students at the university web-based access to study-related learning content, which can be activated by the lecturers according to the pace of teaching.

The laboratory results, patient examinations and associated assessments can be entered by the students to match the tasks. The students' answers can then be accessed and evaluated by the lecturers.

The web application is divided into a front end and a back end with various setting options for user administration and task processing. The front end represents the actual learning module for the students. In addition to information documents, the case studies and tasks are presented here. In the backend, these can be edited by the lecturers and the information documents can be maintained. Programming skills are not required for this.

Both the front end and back end have been implemented and optimized in a responsive design so that access via desktop, notebook, tablet and smartphone is equally easy.

The Zend framework for PHP development was used to develop the system platform. The data is stored centrally in a MySQL database. HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and Bootstrap were used to implement the graphical user interface. In addition, the integration and connection to the user administration of the Goethe University Computer Center (HRZ) took place in a single sign-on concept (SSO).