ITGP Awards: April, 1999

The Basic Science of Tuberculosis: A Web Site for the Coordination of Tuberculosis Teaching Materials at Boston University School of Medicine

BUSM basic science curricula are structured by departments to focus on function and disease processes from the perspectives of each discipline. Consequently, information is duplicated as topics covered by different courses reflect disciplinary/personal biases with minimal clinical correlation. We propose to create a Boston University-restricted web site integrating basic science-tuberculosis course elements with clinical teaching strategies to provide a comprehensive, easily-accessed, unique information source for students. Our proposed structure is based on a basic science core, linked to "actual" cases and didactic material used by Boston’s TB Program. Students can review each discipline’s materials, relate one discipline to another, and correlate these elements with "real" case management, with opportunities for on-line questions/discussions.

Design and Development of Computer-Assisted Instruction in Dentistry

The preclinical Pediatric Orthodontic course (SDM PD 521) is one of five preclinical courses required of second-year dental students prior to providing treatment to patients the following year. The two-credit course provides 137 students with the opportunity to learn techniques in pediatric dentistry and orthodontics. The course has been examined and identified as needing to be redesigned to address the changing focus of the school's curriculum and current trends in dental education. To improve the effectiveness of instruction in this course, computer-assisted instruction will replace the existing text-based instruction. Course materials will be converted to a computerized form and placed on a CD that will be given to students on the first day of class. The purpose of the project is two-fold: (i) To enhance learning through instruction that capitalizes on the attributes of computer technology and (ii) To support the transfer of classroom learning to the clinical setting by developing a performance support tool that can be used long after the course has concluded.

Archeology on the Web: Phase One

The Department of Archaeology at Boston University possesses a massive database of archaeological images, including nearly 40,000 slides curated in the Department’s slide library. As an initial step in making this database more available students, who currently can view the Department’s slides only in class, as well as in making the Department’s archaeological images available to the wider scholarly community, support is sought from the Boston University Instructional Technology Grant Program to digitize a core selection of images that will be put on the web and used in two courses, AR100 Great Discoveries in Archaeology, and AR230 The Archaeology of Classical Civilization

The Virtual Pediatric Patient: A Strategy for Teaching and Evaluating Clinical Problem Solving

Pediatric medical school education is changing from a primarily inpatient to primarily an outpatient experience. Students are placed in various practice settings in the community outside the medical center which vary by type of practice and availability of subspecialty care. The type and number of patients vary widely from site to site and all students may not have an equivalent pediatric experience. Through computer technology and the development of virtual patients, students would have the opportunity to evaluate a core group of patients which would supplement their actual clinical experience and meet the goals of the pediatric curriculum. We propose to develop five virtual patients as a pilot study using an interactive software model for distance learning such as Top Class (WBT Systems, Inc.) which will be user friendly, have supporting audiovisual and will include feedback and testing mechanisms such as self-quizzes, question and answer sessions and evaluations

The Virtual Pediatric Patient will be part of the On-line Pediatrics Clerkship.

Multimedia-Based Student Evaluation

Factual knowledge of medical students is tested efficiently by the multiple-choice question format but insufficient attention is paid to assessing clinical skills essential for competent medical practice. We propose to employ state-of-the-art multimedia technology to establish an Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) in order to test the clinical reasoning and integrative skills of third year students at Boston University School of Medicine. This exam will fill an important void in current evaluation by providing systematic assessment in core clinical competencies for students at multiple sites without placing excessive demands on scarce faculty time, and it will be linked by World Wide Web-based technology to targeted resources that direct further student learning

Web-based Instruction for IH730: Design for Learning, Educational Development and Evaluation for the Health Fields

We propose to address two challenges facing IH730, a course for teachers of the health professions in the systematic approach to instructional design: more flexibility in the learning process and easier access to instruction. By incorporating on-line teaching, we anticipate greater individualization of instruction and more interactive and asynchronous learning. To this end, the course will be web-enabled with a web-site offering unlimited access to selected learning resources. This can support and enhance the classroom experience as well as attract and accommodate increased enrollment. The course will be pilot and field-tested

Dr. Vanderschmidt and the other members of her team, Ascher Segall and Domenic Screnci, are working with the Educational Media Center to move IH730 to a Web site.

Laboratory Exercises in Quantitative Physiology for Engineers

Graduate students in Biomedical Engineering at Boston University arrive with outstanding engineering backgrounds, but little exposure to the crucial subject of physiology. To teach this essential material in a way that takes advantage of our students' backgrounds and prepares them for research efforts that meet a national need, we are developing a course in Quantitative Physiology for Engineers. Requested equipment will be used for physiological experiments that are integrated intimately with computational modeling efforts. The resulting laboratory exercises will produce students with the rare ability to analyze physiological systems from the cellular to systems level using engineering methods