AN INEXPENSIVE SEARCHABLE, SECURE CURRICULAR DATABASE USING GOOGLE TECHNOLOGY

John A. Thomas*, Sanford School of Medicine, The University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069 U.S.A.

Purpose

Lecture materials for first and second year medical courses were incorporated into a single searchable database.  The goal was to facilitate better management of our curriculum, and to provide students cross-course search capabilities for review purposes (final exams, Step 1, etc.). 

Methods

Initially University IT transferred our WebCT course files onto a single server.   Most but not all faculty agreed to have their course materials incorporated into this database.  At least 90% of the first two years curriculum is included.  Subsequently all new course files have been uploaded to the server by paid student assistance, under faculty supervision.  A Google-Mini search appliance was purchased from Google to provide searching capabilities of the database.  Password protection was provided by the University IT.         

Results

The searching strategies and output of the Google-Mini are familiar to anyone who has used the “regular” Google (www.google.com).  Over 200 file formats are searchable by the Google-Mini.  Once set up, virtually no maintenance is required, other than transferring new files to the server.  The entire curriculum may be searched, or searches can be limited to a specific course or curricular year.  The Google-Mini supports Boolean logic.   

Conclusion/Future Directions

The Google-Mini has provided us an inexpensive and easily maintained searchable, password-protected curricular database.  Initial responses to the database, which was just released in late January, have been positive.