TITLE III PROGRESS REPORT
Submitted by: T. Habtemariam
March 4, 1999

A Virtual Biomedical Learning Environment

Introduction
Internet based virtual learning resources are becoming important in advancing biomedical education. As we prepare for the 21st century, the Internet and digital technologies appear to be pivotal for strengthening veterinary medical education at the Tuskegee University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health (TU-CVMNAH). This is consistent with the Department of Education (Title III) program for Strengthening Historically Black Graduate Institutions.

Objectives and sub-objectives:
The objective is to create Virtual Biomedical Learning/Teaching Resources designed to strengthen and advance biomedical education; promote collaborative learning/teaching and information sharing; and enable access to digital information via the Internet’s World Wide Web (WWW) and related resources.

The specific sub-objectives are to:

a) enable educational improvement and advancement by using Internet and Multimedia educational resources;

b) promote collaborative learning/teaching and information sharing;

c) enable access to digital information (where and when desired) via the Internet;

d) develop methods and resources that will assist in the evaluation of the value added benefits of technology based learning/teaching approaches and collect qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the impact on biomedical education.

Methodology

Activity 1: Creating the Virtual Resources for biomedical education

Task: creating Virtual Resources that will consist of:

a) acquiring, creating and/or developing WWW and other Internet resources,

b) acquiring and installing the appropriate hardware and network resources to enable anytime anywhere computing,

c) identifying and categorizing and creating the appropriate veterinary and related biomedical content.

The Virtual Biomedical Learning Resources will rely on the Internet and the WWW to promote collaborative learning/teaching and information sharing; and enable access to digital information via the Internet’s World Wide Web (WWW) and related resources. One systems analyst will be responsible for this development.

Status: This task has been initiated and is an on-going activity. It is a major undertaking and is expected to take a sizable amount of time for development and implementation during the coming years of the Title III project. Some of the hardware and software (Table 1) resources have been acquired. The workstations are integrated into the local area network resources of the college that has now been upgraded from 10 base 2 ethernet technology to gigabit technology (fast ethernet at speeds of 10 times faster than before).

A systems analyst with extensive experience on WWW development (Mrs. A. Afroze) is being transferred to spend full time in this area. She is expected to be transferred by April of 1999.

Table 1: Hardware and software acquired using Titlke III funds during the 1998/99 period

Hardware Resources acquired during the 1998/99 period: < td> 1

Item	Number acquired
PowerMac G3	11
PowerMac G3 Server	1
Apple Monitors	7
LaserWriter 8500	1
PowerBook G3
HP DeskJet Printer	1
SeaGate Cheetah Hard disk	1
Jaz External SCSI	1
MediaMate for the Mac

Software Acquired WINDOWS 98 Upgrade LXR Test Software (renewal) InterMapper MicroSoft Office 98

Activity 2: Creating the Multimedia Resources

Task: developing hypermedia modules for selected topics that lend themselves to visual and auditory dimensions for exchange of information and/or learning will be emphasized. Faculty from each of the three departments of the college will be recruited for this purpose. Specific examples for the initial stage could be courses in Epidemiology, Parasitology, etc.

One full time scientific visualization specialist is expected to focus on this area. One of our staff members with advanced MacroMind Director and visualization expertise (in fact the only person with such expertise on our staff) will be responsible for this activity.

Status : a scientific visualization expert (Ms. V. Robnett) is in the process being transferred to fill this important position. She is expected to fill this position as of April of 1999. However, preliminary development in selected areas of two courses, (Epidemiology and Gross Anatomy) are in progress.

Activity 3: Multimedia Presentations ( student training)

Task: Students in the third and fourth years of the veterinary curriculum, involved in "clinical rounds" will be trained in the use of Multimedia and Multimedia presentations. Via these presentation tools, other multimedia resources including QuickTime, Premiere and PowerPoint will be integrated into biomedical presentations.

Status: this task is on target. In the fall of 1998, the junior class students received training in the use of Information technology and multimedia resources including the use of PowerPoint and related presentation resources such as QuickTime. Selected fourth year students are being assisted in preparing and presenting their grand round presentations using the electronic classroom resources of the college.

Task: the two key issues for success in the use of technology in education are:

a) faculty development and training; and,

b) changing the traditional teaching/learning paradigm of passive involvement within the triad of student - teacher - textbook, to an interactive and technology enriched learning/teaching environment. The emphasis will be on interactive and participatory learning using multimedia resources.

Activity 4:

To accomplish this, educators will be provided continuous training and support (one on one or as appropriate) in the use of technology in education. Faculty will be encouraged to interact with other faculty in their own respective areas as well as with others elsewhere. Access to e-mail and listservs will therefore be critical. Teachers will be provided time off to pursue a focused training activity in the use of IT.

Status: the existing electronic resources of the college were used to train and prepare students and faculty in information technology to reinforce and strengthen the learning/teaching process. An annual workshop on Veterinary Scholar Workstation Training was conducted during June of 1998. A one-month computer training workshop was provided for faculty (15), staff (19), Education Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduate (ECFVG) interns (7) and others from the community (4). One work-study student attended two of the sessions. A memo, along with a registration form, course descriptions and a training schedule were distributed to all department heads, faculty, and staff in each department and in the School of Nursing and Allied Health to announce the workshop one month in advance. Training guides/exercises were prepared or compiled and distributed during each session. There was a total of 27 participants who attended at least one of 145 sessions provided. See Appendix V for a report of attendance according to those sessions for which persons registered, but did not attend (120), those who attended, but did not register (104), and those who registered and attended the sessions (41). Interest in computer training was shown by the number of persons who registered, however, because of various reasons, including commitments to teaching and research activities, many of them were unable to attend.

Activity 5: Fostering communication among educators and learners: Task: to foster effective communication among faculty and students, a Listserv and Bulletin Board (discussion group) will be set up for the CVMNAH. Internet e-mail and electronic bulletin boards will be developed to enable students to communicate with their teachers and other colleagues in cyberspace.

Status: this task has not been initiated.

Activity 6: Creating an environment that promotes collaborative learning Task: to strengthen biomedical education and promote group study habits, clusters of learner workstations will be positioned in strategic locations in the college, all geared to promote and cultivate cooperative and group study habits. For those interested in individually paced independent studies, appropriate Internet and IT resources will be made available.

Status: this task has not been pursued actively during this project period. Although some clusters of workstations do exist, more must be done in this area during the coming years.

Activity 7: Student training:

Task: interdigitating the use of computer technology in the teaching/learning process using selected case-study courses (e.g. Clinical Rotation, Epidemiology, Physiology and Anatomy) will be continued and enlarged during this phase of the project.

Status: as in the past few years, third year clinical students were required to complete a two week course intended to develop their expertise in veterinary scholar workstation computing methodologies and utilize the Internet and the WWW technology resources to manage and process biomedical information and advance their scientific activities in veterinary medicine. All third year students received training during the fall of 1998 clinical rotation period.

Interdigitating the use of information technology in the curriculum is being advanced slowly but surely. During this project reporting period, fifty four (54) fourth year students enrolled in the Epidemiology portions of the course entitle Population Health were provided lectures, hands-on exercises and related activities using a World Wide Web (WWW) on-line course developed by faculty of the college. Similarly, the teaching of seven graduate students enrolled in Medical Statistics course was done using a WWW on-line course developed at Tuskegee University. Both the Epidemiology and Medical Statistics course are now available on the WWW and can be accessed by pointing your browser to: http://ccebims.tusk.edu

Activity 8: Expanding and advancing the networking infrastructure and resources:

Task: to advance the existing local area network of the college and to migrate towards fast ethernet capability (ATM or other alternatives) for transmitting data at about 100 megabits per second or better is now needed. The existing university wide T1 line is already clogged up and often slow to respond. Moving multimedia images along this path is already problematic. The university has recognized this constraint and has consulted with 3 COM Corporation to:

a) improve network access and resource utilization,

b) increase bandwidth,

c) implement a scaleable network architecture to take TU to the 21st century via ATM technology. Such an advanced infrastructure will fully support video, voice and data transmission across the university’s network as well as enabling faster and greater access to the Internet and the WWW. One full time network systems expert will spend 100% of his time on these extremely critical areas of the local area network.

Status: this task has been completed using funds from another grant (the Center for Excellence in Veterinary Medical Education). The network resources of the college has been upgraded from 10base 2 ethernet technology to gigabit technology (fast ethernet at speeds of 10 times faster than before). This task would require a network systems expert to fill the position. This person was to provide training in accessing network resources, be responsible for maintaining the complex and advanced network resources including the sizable number of WWW servers of the college. However, this position has not been filled yet on the Title 3 grant.

Activity 9: Evaluation

Task: the project evaluation and assessment process will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. Data will be gathered using questionnaires and network based automated data gathering resources.

Status using MacAdministrator (High Resolution, Foxboro, MA) user information such as who was logged on to the Client machine, along with the applications that each user used and how long the applications were used for are being collected. Each students frequency and duration of computer use is recorded. The data is stored in a FileMaker Pro database management system.