|
||||||||
|
EDUCATION The Medical Curriculum Goes DigitalOn Aug. 29, HMS and HSDM launched the newest version of their online curriculum, one that provides electronic access to the complete course material for all four years. The eCurriculum, as it is known, is the brainchild of John Halamka, HMS associate dean of educational technology, who, together with a team of programmers and educators, worked for the last eight months to ensure the transition from pen and paper to keyboard and screen was complete by the start of the fall semester.
Griffin Weber (left) and John Halamka led students and faculty in taking the medical curriculum to the next level online. Photo by Jeff Cleary Students gain access to the eCurriculum through the aptly named Web portal MyCourses. "Our goal was to provide a single destination for all electronic resources students would need," said Halamka. As such, the portal lives up to expectations. From there, a few mouse clicks can take students to handouts, casebooks, histology slides, and, via streaming video and endoscopy, deep into the human body itself. Just the FactsFrom a student's perspective, the beauty of the system is its simplicity. Everything is available from any computer, anywhere, anytime. The days of carting study aids home to the parents' house on Thanksgiving are gone. So, too, is scribbling down times and venues in one's personal organizer: since the School knows which courses students have elected, portals come with a tailor-made calendar. If a student wants to find out what she will be doing in mid-December, for example, it's all there, just a click away.Student input was, of course, crucial to the project. As luck would have it, while Halamka and the faculty were brainstorming about the eCurriculum last winter, Griffin Weber, a first-year student, was independently working on his own website for classmates in Health Sciences and Technology, building some of the features that would eventually be used for the MyCourses portal. When Halamka saw what Weber had done, he immediately recognized that it was exactly what he wanted. Soon the two projects merged. "Griffin had a major input into the look, feel, and organization of the portal," said Jason Alvarez, educational computing manager and major contributor to the development. Because he had already canvassed his classmates, Weber knew exactly what kinds of course utilities and interface they desired. For example, he incorporated a search engine that quickly allows users to switch databases; one can type in a keyword, search PubMed, then with a click search for the same word in Gray's Anatomy or a medical dictionary. Such time-saving features are a boon to busy students. However, it is not all academic. Students lobbied for a venue to buy and sell used texts and equipment, so the Trading Post was born. Stocks and weather can also be incorporated. "We prefer that students spend most of their time on their MyCourses site rather than surfing, say, Yahoo," said Halamka. Portals are, therefore, customizable, and any URL can be added to the My Links section. Faculty's access to the eCurriculum is just as painless. They, too, have a MyCourses portal, but theirs comes with editing privileges. They can upload course content and post announcements, all from their own home, if they wish. Faculty members have three main utilities: CourseEditor, CaseBuilder, and ResourceBank. All are simple to use yet sophisticated. With CourseEditor, for example, the content for an entire course can be uploaded in advance. Each component can be flagged with a release date, allowing staff to post a fall semester survey in mid-summer, safe in the knowledge that it will appear online months later. The CaseBuilder allows faculty to post scenarios based on encounters with real patients, while the ResourceBank is a repository for teaching aids that can be used for any HMS course. MyCourses to GoHalamka was not satisfied with traditional portals, so he took everything mobile. With the help of ArcStream Solutions, Inc., MyCourses Web content can now be transferred to PDAs, so students and faculty can have their calendars and announcements in their pockets, right where they need them. This will be especially useful to third- and fourth-years who are often off campus and may not have computer access. In addition, the second floor of the TMEC, which houses the student societies, is now equipped with infrared data-transfer capability, allowing students to synchronize their PalmPilots with the touch of a button.The handheld devices also offer their own suite of utilities, some particularly suited to a clinical setting. These include drug and toxicology databases, such as ePocrates and Micromedex, which can help doctors make treatment decisions on-site, and PatientKeeper, which allows students to record patient information on their rounds and consult their data later if the need arises. Of course, security is a major concern so the Educational Technology Department has gone to great lengths to ensure access is limited and patient confidentiality is uncompromised. The only thing that seems more impressive than the sophistication and simplicity of the package is the speed with which it was put together. "Halamka's drive and enthusiasm were infectious, but we also happened to have the perfect team," said Alvarez, "a faculty member who understood exactly what he wanted, a student who knew exactly what his classmates required, and a great team of programmers." —Tom Fagan |
