the MEDICAL EDUCATOR VOL 3, No 2, February 2001  Faculty, students embrace technology in first-year course Ah, remember the good old days, when we used computer videodiscs, those things the size of the old LP record albums, that could hold 54,000 images on one side, which is the equivalent of 675 slide trays—the same videodiscs, we might add, whose images are barcoded, meaning that any one of those thousands of images can be called up on the monitor in less than three seconds?   Hey, wait a minute! Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? You’re reminiscing about the videodisc when we still have the venerable microscope.  What about the microscope? Has it gone the way of the old hand-crank telephone?   “Yes,” agreed Robert Ogilvie, Ph.D., professor of cell biology and anatomy, as he stood in the middle of students eyeing a variety of cells on computer screens, with nary a microscope in sight. (Most of them were stored away in cabinets, as it turned out.)    Ogilvie is director of a new course offered this spring for first-year medical students, called Medical Histology and Embryology, a marriage of two formerly separate course offerings. The combination lecture-laboratory-independent study is taught by five faculty members in addition to Ogilvie—Timothy Fitzharris, Ph.D., professor and associate chairman of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy; Karl Karnaky Jr., Ph.D., associate professor; Paul McDermott, Ph.D., associate professor; Thomas Trusk, Ph.D., assistant professor and Donald Wilbur, Ph.D., professor.    You would be hard pressed to find another course that has embraced computer technology as this one has. As Ogilvie toured a visitor around the Basic Science Building's sixth floor computer modules, he spoke with pride how Cell Biology and Anatomy had undergone an extensive transformation, beginning with the  arrival of Roger Markwald, Ph.D., as department chair seven years ago. That brought an infusion of startup money, Ogilvie said, which was supplemented in 1997 with revenue from the Medical Alumni Loyalty Fund. Those funds were used to gut office space and install several computers and videodisc players amid new carpeting and modular furniture to make five separate teaching modules.   Two or three students cluster around a computer monitor, insert a videodisc into the player, and scan a particular barcode to retrieve a corresponding cell image on the screen, much like a clerk in a store scans a barcode on merchandise to identify it and list its price. The entire process takes seconds.    “The video discs are great- especially when compared to the alternative:  microscopes and slides,” said student Darryl Pauls. “The image is always in focus and time is not wasted when viewing many structures.  It is much easier to scan a bar code and have an image appear than it is to search on a slide for a specific structure.”   “Each time I go into lab I feel confident that the image I’m seeing is one of the best examples of that cell or tissue available, said another student, Shannon Gullett. “I do believe you lose some of the romance of slaving over a microscope trying to get just the right image in focus, but with my schedule, sometimes romance can’t help but be sacrificed.”   In the mid 1970s, retail grocery stores adopted the Universal Product Code (UPC) as the standard for inventory control and pricing. The use of barcodes has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, and is commonplace throughout commerce and business today, even in the entertainment industry. At least one current science fiction television series features a genetically-enhanced human as its main character, a barcode plainly stamped on her neck.   The Cell Biology and Anatomy faculty, along with other departments, have embraced emerging technologies and applied them to their course offerings to heighten student interest and participation.  As another example of new technology, Ogilvie hands his visitor a compact disc (CD) called “Virtual Microscope — General and Special Histology.” Inserted in a computer using Windows, this CD simulates a microscope, containing specimens used in general histology courses. Additionally, it can highlight and label structures within the specimens and can even quiz the user to assess learning progress.     Videodiscs and barcodes have been in use in the department since 1993. Despite their versatility and practicality, Ogilvie doesn’t know how long videodiscs can remain a part of the course.   “The videodisc has seen its day,” he said. “Now  it’s DVD.” This medium, formerly known as digital versatile disc or digital video disc, is similar in appearance to the CD, but is far superior in terms of optical disc storage technology. DVD can store not only computer data, but cinema-like video and higher quality audio than a CD. Eventually, DVD aims to encompass home entertainment, computers and business information with a single digital format, replacing virtually all other formats, including audio CDs, videotape, laserdiscs, CD-ROMs and video game cartridges.   In the face of all this technology, however, it should be noted that the department’s microscopes are not entirely gathering dust. Ogilvie said they are brought out for one exercise relating to white blood cell counts. Although the microscope’s use is limited, Ogilvie said, there are no plans to do away with it, because students enjoy using it and say it helps them see relationships in their studies.   The department also administers computerized exams over a local network, which allows students to take the exam online at their own convenience and pace. Ogilvie was able to measure the amount of time each student took in completing the exam and attempted to correlate that with the student’s grade. His finding: the amount of time students took in completing the exam—anywhere from 15 minutes to the allotted time of 50 minutes—had no bearing on their grade.   In return, students’ attitudes toward online exams were overwhelmingly positive. Ogilvie said students felt the exams were more enjoyable, less time-consuming and more informative than paper-and-pencil exams.    “The web-based quizzes help us to focus on studies to the areas of the course that are most important,” agreed student Pauls. “The quizzes also allow students to familiarize themselves with the types and difficulty of the test questions. The quizzes allow students to direct their time more efficiently.”    “The video discs and web-based quizzes are very accessible—I can return to the same image days later and compare it to one I’ve seen in a different source. The level of accessibility and time saved make these resources invaluable,” Gullett added.   “We’re headed toward a fully Web-managed course, with online testing” Olgivie said. “We are cautiously optimistic about this, recognizing that one of the main obstacles in testing over the Web is the potential violation of the honor code by using notes and other resources. Web-based testing has the obvious advantage of cross-platform and unlimited stations.”   'Mechanisms of Disease' I & II explore pathological changes within the body What happens inside the body to trigger certain biochemical processes, and how do they progress?   “Mechanisms of Disease,” a second-year medical course, attempts to reveal these often subtle changes and their subsequent results.   And who better to direct this course than MUSC’s two forensic pathologists—Kim Collins, M.D., and Erin McConnell, M.D. They administer the course around crowded schedules of crime scene visitations, autopsies and courtroom appearances.     Mechanisms of Disease (MOD) I, a fall semester course, is offered primarily for medical, dental and graduate students. It consists of lectures, lab/seminar tutorial sessions, computer-assisted learning programs, and one mandatory autopsy viewing.    Its spring counterpart, MOD II, required for medical students and an elective for graduate students, presents a systemic view of the body, studying specific disease processes of individual organ systems, including the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, reproductive, skin and skeletal systems. The academic setup —  lectures, labs, computer-assisted programs and other events — is similar to MOD I.   Because of their busy calendars, the university’s only forensic pathologists are unable to attend every lecture. McConnell and Collins credit administrative assistant Sandy Schaller for making sure everybody—instructors and students—gets to their appointed destinations when and where they should.  Collins and McConnell were asked to take responsibility for coordinating  the course last summer. They set about redesigning it from its previous format, updating and streamlining the content and course guide, adding microscopic slides and pathology specimens back into the small group laboratories and restructuring the test questions to a Board-style format. Where possible, they aligned the course content with other courses in the second year curriculum.   They also shifted the emphasis of the course.     “In the past it’s always been more of a basic science course,” Collins said. “We wanted to make it more clinical.”   Despite the shift, the course’s orientation still remains rooted in the basic sciences. MOD I encompasses general pathology and neuropathology. Genetics, under the direction of Sashidhar Pai, M.D., professor of pediatrics and director  of the Division of Genetics and Developmental Pediatrics, also is included as part of this course designation. This fall, hematopathology is scheduled to move to MOD I.   Pathology attendings and residents preside over the seminar-tutorials, covering lecture material and case studies (autopsies or surgical pathology cases) in MOD I. To assist in their review, cases and pictures are posted on the course’s Website <http://www.musc.edu/pathology/newpage.htm>. Also, Powerpoint presentations have been added to the curriculum and the computer-assisted-learning (CAL) programs are scheduled to be updated. There remains, however, much of the traditional tried-and-true curriculum, namely, microscopic examination of tissues.   From a time standpoint, MOD I and II are the largest courses in the students’ second year. As such, much is demanded of the students from these courses. McConnell said students coming out of MOD I and II should understand the underlying mechanisms of disease processes and their associated pathology, along with the clinical aspects of disease. McConnell and Collins believe that by coordinating the content of MOD I and II with students’ concurrent courses, they will be able to better retain the information from the courses.     Continuing Medical Education March  3 Focus on the Complicated Patient with Hypertension Greenville Hyatt Hotel, Greenville 8 - 9 Outcomes Management: From Theory to Action Westin Francis Marion Hotel 19 - 21 OB/GYN Spring Symposium Charleston Place Hotel 22 - 24 Office Practice of Primary Care Mills House Hotel 26 - 27 11th Charleston Pulmonary Update Charleston Place Hotel April 4 - 6 McKee Memorial Cytology Seminar Embassy Suites Historic District 16 - 18 2nd Annual Issues in Women's Health Charleston Place Hotel 20 - 21 EUS Tutorial MUSC campus 26 - 28 Postgraduate Course in Surgery Mills House Hotel May 5 - 6 Sickle Cell Conference Lightsey Conference Center 24 - 25 New Drug Update Embassy Suites Hotel-Conv. Ctr. 25 - 27 Advanced Endoscopy Update Wild Dunes Resort 25-28 Medicine in the Vocal Arts Mills House Hotel May 30 - June 2 Update in Cardiology for the Primary Care Physician Charleston Place Hotel May 31-June 2 Magnolia Otolaryngology Conference Mills House Hotel June 1 - 2 14th Update in Psychiatry MUSC Institute of Psychiatry 4-9 Intensive Review of Family Medicine Kiawah Island Resort 7 - 8 ERCP Tutorial MUSC Campus 7 - 9 Ophthalmology Update Kiawah Island Resort 15 - 16 Oncology Update Mills House Hotel 16 - 19 Modeling of Protein Interactions in Genomes Lightsey Conference Center   Teaching Tips From the recent Appletree Society and College of Medicine Teach the Teachers Program, “Improving Presentation Skills,” by Dr. George Tempel   Interrupt straight lecture with group activity or something different at least every 20 minutes. It is more important to be effective than efficient—Determine a core of material that MUST be included.  Don't rush!  Encourage the notion of the importance of learning the fundamentals BEFORE attempting the difficult. Regard your students as junior colleagues. The Medical Educator is produced by the Office of Public Relations

 

Catalyst Menu |Campus News | Community Happenings | Grantland |Research Grants |Research Studies |Seminars and Events | Speakers Bureau | Medical Educator | Archives |Applause |Charleston Links |Medical Links |MUSC |