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Technology and Education Newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue! Click on the topics to the left to view this issues stories. Please feel free to send us your feedback by clicking the "Your Comments" link.

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FITS

Virtual Microscopy and Online Exams (News)

Faculty and students alike have been very pleased with the new Aperio virtual microscope and its flexibility.  With such great success in the labs, the next logical step was to begin using the digitized slides in the slide practical exams.

To accommodate the practical component of the 1st and 2nd year medical/dental exams, the FITS office had to develop a way to incorporate the virtual slides on the Aperio server in the Questionmark online exam environment.  Using a product called Zoomify, slides contained on the Aperio virtual microscope server can now be included in Questionmark exams.  Students no longer have to take time out of their written exam to go to special rooms assembled with microscope stations nor do they need to manually adjust the microscopes to view and analyze the slides.  Using the Zoomify tool, students can sit at their computer and use their mouse to zoom in/out, move, and measure.  This flexibility allows students to spend more time analyzing the slides rather than wasting valuable time adjusting objectives, eyepieces, light, and focus.   

As an example of how the system works, FITS has developed a sample exam which includes a brief tutorial on how to use the Zoomify tools and a sample slide which users can practice on.  To view this sample exam, click the link below and enter your Blackboard username.

http://hsecfs1.uchc.net/javacheck/vmsample.cfm

If you have any questions about how to use this tool, or would like to know how to incorporate this technology into a course, contact the FITS office.

Glass Slide Practical (News)

On Monday, December 8, the first glass slide practical was held in MDL Classroom I. Half of the practical featured glass slides and traditional microscopes while the other half featured slides scanned on the Aperio instrument.

The students taking the practical were pleased with this format and most wish to have the entire practical consist of virtual slides, which the FITS office is diligently working on to make happen for the upcoming exams to be held in 2009.

Medbiquitous Virtual Patient Conference in Baltimore (News)

Yanko Michea and Josh Simon recently attended a conference in Baltimore on Virtual Patients and other interactive learning technologies. The conference was hosted by the Medbiquitous group, an organization dedicated to the development of information technology standards for healthcare education and competence assessment. (Medbiquitous)

Yanko and Josh gave demonstrations of the Virtual Patient system that the FITS office has been developing for the past 3 years. The system allows students to interactively work through various medical and dental case studies. The system reacts to student input and provides different outcomes accordingly.

The demonstrations were a huge success and they were able to network with several other institutions working on similar projects in an effort to improve the product.

For questions about using the Virtual Patient system, please contact Josh at jsimon@uchc.edu or Yanko at ymichea@uchc.edu