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Report from the Contributed Papers Session, "Working in a Digital World. Session I: Librarian as Publisher", sponsored by the Educational Media and Technologies Section of the Medical Library Association.
May 14-19, 1999 Chicago, IL.
Producing a CD-ROM with CBI Programs for Medical Students
Presented by Brenda L. Seago, Director of the Computer Based
Instruction Lab
School of Medicine, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth
Universit
y
Reported by Heather Munger, Reference and Education Services
Health Sciences Library, State University of New York at Buffalo
On Monday May 17th, the Educational Media and Technologies Section of the Medical Library Association held a program titled "Working in a Digital World Session I. Librarian as Publisher." Brenda L. Seago, Director of the Computer Based Instruction Lab, School of Medicine, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University presented "Producing a CD-ROM with CBI Programs for Medical Students."
The Computer Based Instruction Lab (CBIL) designs and develops computer based instructional (CBI) programs in-house to support the curriculum of the School of Medicine (SOM). The CBIL Director meets with faculty to determine if there is a need for a CBI program. After it has been decided a program would benefit the curriculum, learning objectives are identified and the faculty member begins to develop the content. When this is completed, CBIL begins to create the program. Faculty members follow guidelines that were established by CBIL to aid in developing the content for CBI programs, including all programs must use original images, permission must be sought for copyrighted materials, and faculty must be able to meet curriculum deadlines. When the CBI program is completed it is made available on the CBIL network and select programs are also made available on a CD-ROM that is distributed to all four classes of medical students free of charge. Since programs are image intensive, the CD-ROM format is more feasible than a web-based application.
Student feedback is solicited for all of the CBI programs produced by CBIL. Upon completion of the course, students are sent an e-mail message with a link to an online evaluation form. This method provides a simple way for students to evaluate the program and allows CBIL to tabulate the data electronically. There may also be additional feedback from the faculty. These comments assist in revising and updating the computer based instructional programs.
Some of the programs have been published and distributed outside the Medical College of Virginia's School of Medicine. When it is decided to publish a CBI program, potential publishers are contacted and sent the program for evaluation. Revisions are returned from the publisher and CBIL works to incorporate the changes. With this finished, CBIL produces a master CD-ROM for duplication.
In addition to the computer based instructional programs, the Computer Based Instruction Lab provides various resources to SOM faculty, staff and students. These resources include 43 computer workstations, textbooks, course syllabi, VCRs with TV monitors, 35mm slide projectors, microscopes, X-ray viewboxes, laser printers and laserdisc players. CBIL is open more than 92 hours a week and can support an average class size of 170 students. The Computer Based Instruction Lab also manages 14 remote locations in three different hospitals called Student Educational Workstations (SEWs). The SEWs provide the same resources at the hospitals that are available on campus, including library databases, CBI programs, e-mail, Internet access, and word-processing. Besides the SEWs, the CBIL also manages the Dr. Hermes A. Kontos Student Lounge. The student lounge has seven computers and is connected to the CBIL network.
Services provided by the Computer Based Instruction Lab include web paging for medical students, computerized testing, a quarterly newsletter, and "Computer Resource Guide for Medical Students." This resource guide acquaints medical students with the resources and computer facilities they will use as part of their medical education.
More information on the Computer Based Instruction Lab and computer based instructional programs may be found at the Computer Based Instruction Lab's home page http://www.cbil.vcu.edu/
Copyright 1999 Heather Munger. All rights reserved. Commercial use requires permission of the author and the editor of this journal.
The author and editors do not maintain links to World Wide Web resources.
