Presented at the 1998 APIII Conference Return to 1998 Abstract Index
THE COMPUTER-ASSISTED TEACHING SYSTEM (C.A.T.S.)
http://cats.med.uvm.edu/
University of
Vermont
College of Medicine
Department of Pathology
Burlington, Vermont
J. Mark Tuthill, MD
To further support the educational needs of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, a Computer Assisted Teaching System (C.A.T.S.) was developed. Initially, the system was designed to operate on the Apple Macintosh platform, using multimedia created with Macromedia's Authorware‚ application. Since deployment of the system in 1994, the original Pathology and Histology programs have been migrated to the Internet using Macromedia's Director and Java development tools (JBuilder, Visual Cafe) for animations along with Internet World Wide Web editors (Adobe Page Mill/SiteMill, BBEdit and Cyberstudio).
Currently, using browser based technology, students may access materials from any location with an Internet connection and appropriate network bandwidth. While the system was initially developed within the Department of Pathology, the C.A.T.S. multimedia development lab has been designated a "core facility" of the College of Medicine, supporting the needs of all its departments. Further, the concepts developed in C.A.T.S. are being examined as a model system for reform of the medical school curriculum.
C.A.T.S.
now has over 4,500 interactive images or education objects,
and 18,000 associated html pages including material from
Pathology, Histology, Physiology, Neuroscience, and Biochemistry.
Current projects include development for Pharmacology and
Gross Anatomy, as well as continued development of course
materials for established units. C.A.T.S. is currently based
on browser technology, independent of operating system requirements.
Both a browser "plug-in" to view animations (Macromedia's
Shockwave‚, a free download) and a Java enabled web
browser (2.0 version browsers and above) are minimal requirements.
