In the last five years, handheld computers, also called Personal Digital
Assistants (PDAs), have increased in popularity. In 2001, approximately
26% of physicians used PDAs, with an estimate of 50% by 2005. The use of
PDAs in medical education has also increased.
Our proposal to enhance undergraduate
medical education using handheld computing focused specifically on
the Clinical Core because we believe that the greatest benefits of handheld
computing technology will be seen in this part of the curriculum.
Our
project piloted a learner log to track clinical encounters by both
diagnoses and symptom and link that to individual clerkship objectives.
Students can monitor completion of objectives and modify rotations or
learning experience if gaps exist. In addition, the learner log will
aid in comparing clinical experience by student and across rotations.
We believe that this will help clerkship directors to advance the quality
and consistency of the Clinical Core educational experience.
iROCKET (interactive Resources Online Cultivating
Knowledge through Educational Technology) is the
name of the School of Medicine's digital curriculum. iROCKET primarily
refers to our online course system, but also includes other digital resources
such as handheld computing and stand alone learning materials or modules.
The iROCKET online course system is delivered through a campus-wide implementation
of WebCT managed by the UCSF Library. The Office of Educational Technology
currently supports online courses for the entire first three years of
medical school's core curriculum. In addition we have developed online
courses for first and second year electives and 4th year clinical electives.
Ilios, UCSF School of Medicine's Curriculum Management Tool, is the web-based,
digital hub for curriculum planning and oversight. While in the midst
of dramatic curriculum change, begun in 1997, we recognized the need for
a powerful tool that would:
- facilitate integration of the curriculum
- serve as a development/communication forum
- feed curriculum data into our online courses (iROCKET)
Ilios is more than a database of curricular details, offering faculty,
students, and staff a means of tracking course information and generating
comprehensive reports about the integration of themes, concepts, and learning
objectives. A highly flexible, web-based application, Ilios is easily
scalable, adaptable and accessible, and is designed to truly support the
innovative and interdisciplinary nature of our new curriculum.
The mobile computing program is made possible through a generous donation
from the UCSF School of Medicine Class
of 1952. We have 20 Dell Latitude laptops with DVD drives and built-in
wireless Internet access for use by Essential and Clinical Core faculty
during teaching sessions. The laptops can cover simultaneous small group
sessions, be used for presentations or set up as a single mobile computing
lab. The mobile computing lab is jointly supported by OET and the UCSF
Library's Interactive Learning Center.
The medical student web portal known as medstudents.ucsf.edu
was developed in cooperation with medical students for medical students.
It serves as the primary digital home for students in the School of Medicine
and pulls together resources on computing, curriculum, school policy,
professional development, student activities and services.
Health science educators are increasingly compelled to incorporate technology
into teaching, but the development of high quality, endurable digital
learning materials is time consuming. Departments, schools and promotion
and tenure review committees want to reward faculty for this effort but
they are not in a position to evaluate the quality of these materials.
A national peer-review process for digital learning materials in the
health sciences is necessary in order for digital scholarship to be recognized.
The Cardiology Multimedia Library was designed by Dr. Andrew Michaels
and Team iROCKET to complement and expand upon the teaching of clinical
cardiology in the Major Organs Systems block. The digital movies contained
within the library represent an assortment of real cases from the UCSF
Cardiology Service.
MissingLink, a student developed site that guides medical students to
health education related web-based resources. MissingLink's primary tool
is a search engine that identifies proven web-based resources of value
to medical student education. MissingLink allows users to search for resources
based on discipline or keyword and results are sorted from the highest
to lowest rating. Visitors can also browse by discipline or categories
based on the UCSF medical school curriculum. MissingLink was developed
by UCSF medical students and was funded by the UCSF Instructional
Grant Program, with assistance from the Library & Center for Knowledge
Management's CIT Lab and the School of Medicine. Continued support of
this site has been generously provided from the Class
of 1961.
In the Summer of 2002, Ted Laetsch, MS2, created an application
to allow students to sync a personalized curriculum calendar to their
handheld device.
The Curriculum Ambassador program provides support and mentoring
for students to pursue a curriculum project of their choosing. Students
partner with faculty to develop particular topics within a block--from
small groups session to syllabus chapters to online modules. OET provides
mentoring and direct support to ambassador projects with a technology
component. This program has been one of the greatest sources for new online
learning content for the iROCKET courses as well as helping to better
integrate technology into the curriculum.
The iROCKET
Learning Module Toolbox offers the tools and techniques
used to create an online learning module. Students learn how to plan,
design and develop their own learning module. This toolbox provides the
templates and media resources to quickly produce a module. In
the advanced sections, students learn about online technologies, software
applications, coding, video, and instructional design
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