PROGRAMMING AND ROLLOVER ENHANCEMENT OF DIGITAL
IMAGES TO IMPROVE GROSS ANATOMY LEARNING IN THE MEDICAL CURRICULUM AT THE
UNIVERSITY
OF
OTTAWA
.
Akef S. Obeidat, M.D., Ph.D.*, Henri Lescault,
M.D., Ph.D., Youssef Wassef, M.D., Deborah Lee, B.Sc., Tin Ngo Minh,
B.Sc., Matthew Parkinson, B.Sc., Tim
Willett, B.Sc., Shannon Goodwin, Maxwell
Hincke, Ph.D., Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy, Department of
Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ottawa University,
Ottawa, Ontario,K1H 8M5
The aim of this project was to complement the Gross Anatomy
laboratories in our medical program with learning resources developed from
digital photographs of high quality anatomic dissections. Digital images
of human cadaveric dissections were carefully selected to represent key
concepts / structures that are coupled to the learning objectives of our
medical curriculum, where students are taught anatomy in the context of
blocks organized by clinical specialty. Medical students were hired to
work closely with the Anatomy teaching and technical staff throughout this
project. Digital photographs of the desired anatomic dissections for each
block were taken using a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera, equipped with a
Nikon MCU-1 cable release (remote) and mounted on a Manfrotto 025 Super
Boom with a quick-change-adapter. The lighting of the dissection
laboratory has been augmented with 2 surgical lamps, one ceiling mounted
with a cool color light Panasonic light capsule (natural light) and one
movable floor model surgical light with a photoflood light bulb. Flash
software was used to program rollover effects that caused the colour maps
to appear only when the mouse pointer was placed over the name of the
structure, or the structure itself. Colour coding permitted anatomical
boundaries to be clearly delimited and avoided cluttering that would have
been introduced with labels. With the help and the technical support of
the MedEd team at the University of Ottawa these HTML files were
linked to the medical curriculum web site (running under WEB-CT), from
where they were available to all medical trainees (students and residents)
for learning / review via the web to supplement the scheduled laboratories
and lectures. Quality control for labeling of the images and translation
into French was provided. The anatomical accuracy of the colour maps, as
well as the accuracy of the French language translations, was verified by
experienced and bilingual members of our anatomy teaching staff. MedEd
team at the University of Ottawa helped also to develop Web-based, low
stakes self-evaluation quizzes using the WEB-CT quiz tools (matching
style), students answered by choosing names of structures corresponding to
the labeled arrows. Student response to this electronic anatomy resource
that has been developed over the past 4 years has been quite favorable.
This project was supported by grants from The Centre
for University Teaching/Ottawa University
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