Presented at the 1999 APIII Conference Return to 1999 Abstract Index
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ONLINE PATHOLOGY EDUCATION INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE TO FACILITATE PATHOLOGY EDUCATION
(Username: apiii99 ; Password: apiii99)
University
of Alabama @ Birmingham (UAB)
Department of Pathology
Birmingham, Alabama
Kristopher N. Jones, BS
Kristopher N. Jones, BS and Peter G. Anderson, DVM, PhD
Background: The Pathology Education Instructional Resource (PEIR) was designed to serve as an aid to UAB Pathology faculty in the development of digital teaching materials for use in graduate education and undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education.
Design: The core around which PEIR is built consists of two Web-accessible databases. The first database consists of 30,000 (and growing) digital images categorized according to image type (photomicrograph, gross photograph, electron micrograph, etc.), organ or system involved, and image description and keywords. This database is fully searchable through its Web browser interface and images may be retrieved in four different digital formats of varying size and resolution or a shopping cart feature that allows requests for Kodachrome duplication services. The second database consists of almost 10,000 test items which may be searched by category, keyword, question type (4 or 5 choice multiple, type K, etc.), or whether an accompanying image is available. Retrieved questions may be edited, modified, and reordered online and tests may be produced for print format or Web quizzes may be created.
To further facilitate development of digital teaching materials, an online authoring system has been designed to interact with these databases to allow faculty to use these resources in the production of Web-based teaching materials. Through a Web browser interface, images from the image database may be combined with faculty-authored text and descriptions for the creation of online course materials, which may also be edited and updated through the same interface. Further, through the use of a common interface, materials developed by one faculty member or for one application may easily be integrated into other materials developed through this system. Finally, the system allows for the publication of online quizzes generated through the test item database - quizzes that may include images from the image database.
Results and Conclusions: The features of the PEIR Web site were demonstrated to all departmental faculty and the "early adopters" have been utilizing these resources for development of teaching materials. We have also developed tutorials to help some of the less "computer-inclined" faculty to utilize the PEIR Web resource. Faculty use of the resource has grown steadily and we are continuing to help more and more faculty develop digital teaching materials.
