Wrap-Up and Editing of Online Teaching Resources Project in Urology

TitleWrap-Up and Editing of Online Teaching Resources Project in Urology
Faculty/College/UnitMedicine
StatusCompleted
Duration3 Years
Initiation04/01/2008
Completion03/31/2010
Funding Details
Year 1: Project TitleContinued Development of Online Teaching Resources in Urology
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2008/2009
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorJohn ST Masterson
Year 1: Funded Amount20,300
Year 1: Team Members

John S.T. Masterson, Clinical Professor, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Larry Goldenberg, Head, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Ercole Leone, Director, Undergraduate Education, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Christopher Nguan, Director, Surgical Technologies Experimental Laboratory and Advanced Robotics, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Kourosh Hennessy, Resident, Urology Training Program, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Chris Zappavigna, 3rd Year Medical Student, UBC

Year 1: Summary

This project is intended as an extension of our Summer 2007 "Development of Online PBL Cases in Urology". This involved the creation of 39 online cases related to both Emergency Room and Office Urology clinical problems.

The students were the primary authors, and were assigned a specific Urology resident and Urology faculty member. Each student was assigned four cases to be completed over an eight week period during the Summer 2007. Overall editorial review of each case was carried out by JST Masterson and SL Goldenberg. Assistance was also provided by members of the Department of Pathology, and by the Division of Radiation Oncology. Out of the 11 students, participating, one student was located in Victoria and one in Prince George. Local faculty members were assigned to these two students, but the Urology resident was based in Vancouver.

Creation of the cases from a remote site did not pose any difficulties, which was felt to be an endorsement of the accessibility to cases from remote sites. Clinical exposure to real life cases is not uniform in the three distributed sites, so it is felt that this type of resource will help minimize any discrepancies.

Year 2: Project TitleContinued Development of Online Teaching Resources in Urology
Year 2: Project YearYear 2
Year 2: Funding Year2009/2010
Year 2: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 2: Principal InvestigatorJohn ST Masterson
Year 2: Funded Amount27,950
Year 2: Team Members

John S.T. Masterson, Clinical Professor, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Larry Goldenberg, Head, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Ercole Leone, Director, Undergraduate Education, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Christopher Nguan, Director, Surgical Technologies Experimental Laboratory and Advanced Robotics, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Kourosh Afshar, Director, Research Division of Pediatric Urology, BC Children’s Hospital
Linda Peterson, Senior Evaluation Associate, Evaluation Studies Unit, Faculty of Medicine
Kiara Hennessy, Resident, Urology Training Program, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine

Year 2: Summary

With the expansion of the Medical School, with both increased size of the entering class, and wide geographical distribution of students, it was felt that there would be difficulties securing consistent clinical exposure for students. This was related to varying patterns of practice, varying levels of commitment of specialists in the distributed sites, lack of Resident staff at all sites, and the sheer volume of students.

The development of an Online PBL resource with universal access was initiated by the Department of Urological Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine. This project will be the third year of development of Online Resources to support the distributed curriculum model, which currently includes Vancouver (VFMP), Victoria (IMP) and Prince George (NMP). An additional campus, in Kelowna, will be added in 2011.

This resource is intended to provide students from all distributed sites and from remote rural sites with 24/7 access. With the students acting as reviewers and editors, the 2007 cases were exported from CLIPP/CASUS (server based in Germany) to DiagnosisX which is hosted by the Molson Medical Informatics Institute and McGill University. This was necessary because federal law in Canada prohibits the exporting of any confidential data (students) to any server hosted outside of Canada. With the students acting as primary case authors, and supported by a Urology Resident and a Urology faculty member, a total of 26 new cases were completed. A template for current and future cases was also developed to help ensure the uniformity and quality of the cases. An Images Resources Library, hosted on a secure database by the Department of Urological Sciences, was created to store all types of images pertaining to Urology for future teaching and examination purposes. A total of four cases were integrated into the FERGU (Fluids, Electrolytes, Renal, Genito-Urinary) Block of FMED 404 as optional learning resources for the 1st year medical students. Approximately 35% of the class utilized the cases. An Excel file with approximately 18,000 lines is currently being reviewed to assess group student performance.

For 2009, our objectives include:

  1. Review and fine tuning of published case within DiagnosisX;
  2. Creation of new cases, with a quota of 1-2 per student;
  3. Creation of Learning Modules on Urological Topics;
  4. Development of other styles of cases, of a more exploratory nature with patient encounters;
  5. Development of Patient Resources, possibly to available to the general public;
  6. Review of data from DiagnosisX on a case by case basis, and a review of student feedback from FERGU 2009 to assess the efficacy of the Online PBL approach;
  7. Promotion, in collaboration with DiagnosisX, establishing Canada-wide availability of our case/resource library to all medical schools. Preliminary discussions;
  8. Presentation of our results at both National and International Medical Education meetings;
  9. Further integration of the resource into the UBC Faculty of Medicine Curriculum, including use of some cases in other FMED 404 blocks, for example PBL case STD Syphilis in HDI Block.

Virtually all the funds will be directed to student stipends, to student travel costs from the distributed sites in Vancouver, and to student travel costs for presentations at both Canadian and International meetings.

Year 3: Project YearYear 3
Year 3: Funding Year2010/2011
Year 3: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 3: Principal InvestigatorJohn ST Masterson
Year 3: Funded Amount9,120
Year 3: Team Members

John S.T. Masterson, Clinical Professor, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Larry Goldenberg, Head, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Ercole Leone, Director, Undergraduate Education, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Christopher Nguan, Director, Surgical Technologies Experimental Laboratory and Advanced Robotics, Urological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Kourosh Afshar, Director, Research Division, Pediatric Urology, BC Children’s Hospital
Linda Peterson, Senior Evaluation Associate, Evaluation Studies Unit, Faculty of Medicine
David Fleiszer, Head, Molson Medical lnformatics, McGill University
Nancy Posel, Molson Medical lnformatics, McGill University

Year 3: Summary

The Department has a bank of 75 Online PBL cases and 24 videos, as funded previously by TLEF. Regular editing and testing is necessary during the development, publishing and maintenance phases. The videos need hyperlinks within the PBL cases, and also need to be set up as a free standing resource within DiagnosisX and UBC MEDICOL. Funding is also being sought to create a bank of online e-Structured Oral Exam questions, to be linked into the cases.

As in 2009, selected Online PBL cases will be integrated into the 1st year 2010 FERGU Block. We would like to monitor the continued utility of this optional resource and to solicit student feed back about the cases with regards to the content of Weeks 3 & 4 in FERGU.

We plan to look at the natural evolution of case design, knowledge acquisition, and student feedback. This will allow for creation of a “Users Guide” for other Departments and authors.