Electronic Curriculum "Summer Camp"

Photo by Jonathan Smith Ewa Soliz and Pat Molholt view the program that Ohie Charoenkul has developed over the summer in the Curriculum Design Studio. Mr. Charoenkul worked with Dr. Jay Lefkowitch to develop an interactive tutorial for the second-year pathology course, which both medical and dental students take.

In a quiet and sunny corner of the Hammer Health Sciences Library, a cluster of students works on a number of projects in what is called the Curriculum Design Studio. Ewa Soliz, new media developer in the Office of Scholarly Resources, oversees these projects and explains with excitement what's developing during this 10-week push. "We're bringing something new and useful to Health Sciences students in a project that unites faculty, students, and computer media specialists. It's truly a one-of-a-kind effort."

Ms. Soliz, who joined the Office of Scholarly Resources last year from Columbia's School of Education, actually oversees a number of year-round projects that just happen to get more attention during the summer. By employing a handful of medical, dental, and public health students who each work 20 hours per week, the electronic curriculum development program gets an extra boost in the summer months. What the students do, along with faculty collaboration, is design electronic programs that will augment various courses.

Ohie Charoenkul, a student at SDOS, is working with Dr. Jay Lefkowitch, P&S professor of clinical pathology, to develop an interactive tutorial for the neoplasia section of the second-year pathology course that both dental and medical students take. One part of the project involves scanning images that Dr. Lefkowitch drew, then altering them with computer graphics. The end result will be a visual electronic multimedia tutorial of the various types and locations of tumors that students can review to enhance learning. Second-year students will use the computer tutorial during a two-hour morning time slot typically allotted for small group interactions such as preceptor discussion groups or laboratories. Two summers ago, Tom Caughey, now a fourth-year P&S student, worked with Dr. Lefkowitch on a related tutorial which students have used enthusiastically to study inflammation.

According to Ms. Soliz and computer consultant John Hopkins, a student at P&S, students have specifically asked for an electronic curriculum design that offers computer-based testing. "We implement actual questions that students might encounter on exams," says Mr. Hopkins. The student designers also evaluate existing Web sites. "The whole purpose," says Ms. Soliz, "is to augment the courses themselves, offer resources to professors, and give students 3-D visualization that aids in their understanding of medicine."

Ms. Soliz emphasizes that user-centered design is important. That's why she finds her summer program especially useful in furthering this project, which began in 1995 when Science Basic to the Practice of Medicine became the first Health Sciences course to go electronic. That project was the first part of an overall plan for an electronic curriculum developed by Dr. Pat Molholt, assistant vice president of Health Sciences and associate dean of Scholarly Resources. The objective was to enable some of the changes that were being planned in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded curriculum revision project. "Objectives such as integration of material, independent learning, less time in the classroom, and encouraging the development of computer skills among students were among the chief goals of the curriculum revision program," says Dr. Molholt "Those same goals became the guiding principles of the electronic curriculum work."

The entering class of 1996-97 was the first class to test that program on a large scale, which offered the full syllabus of several dozen lectures, images from all labs, searchable lists of glossary terms for the course, and prototypes of self-assessment quizzes. What was found to be especially useful were the slides and 3-D animations, which can now be viewed on individual PCs. Before, groups of eight students had to share slides they could only view in the Learning Center. "When students have the option of using online resources, they're very enthusiastic," says Mr. Hopkins.

Eight projects are under development, says Ms. Soliz, and will continue to be refined and tested throughout the year. One of the most in-depth and ambitious programs in the works is the Vesalius project, led by Dr. Molholt working jointly with researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology and in collaboration with the P&S anatomy faculty. The goal is to develop a multimedia lecture resource for faculty using animated 3-D images, slides, and digital film to enhance teaching. Ms. Soliz will continue work on this project indefinitely. "The Vesalius project is like when people came to America and went West," says Ms. Soliz. "They didn't know where they'd end up, but they knew why they were going."

"Many possibilities lie before us as we undertake any one of these projects," says Dr. Molholt.

A sneak preview of some of the Curriculum Design Studio's work can be seen at http://cait.cpmc.columbia.edu:8000