title: The MERG Suite: Tools for discovering competencies and associated learning resources.
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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The MERG suite is a starting point for organizations implementing competency-based e-learning resources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Ravi Teja
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Bhupatiraju
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Hersh
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and MedBiquitous, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Smothers
authors.affiliation: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fordis
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and MedBiquitous, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Greene