Curriculum Design Studio

Abstract

The delivery of education has become increasingly competitive with technology and multi-media instruction often being one of the measures of success in attracting students. This simple view, however, does not do justice to the true value of using new media in teaching and learning. Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons has taken a leadership role in exploring the integration of new media into the curriculum. Our Curriculum Design Studio is housed along side the Center for Education Research and Evaluation providing a powerful combination of resources to faculty who wish to explore the introduction of new teaching methods in the classroom and new on-line means of delivering information, time and place independent. We have developed methodologies to: introduce faculty to technology, to foster student input in e-curriculum design: to study the impact of technology and new media on learning. This paper will discuss all three of these topics. The Curriculum Design Studio has been in operation for five years and during that time has built a reputation for innovation in student-centered design. We have developed a variety of methods to attract faculty to the Studio and excite them about multi-media teaching. Projects to date focus heavily on effective use of images (anatomy, pathology, histology, and neuroanatomy) to assist students in identification of structures and learning the extensive vocabulary needed to master these fields. The same technology is applicable to art, architecture, biology, geology, and other image-rich fields. Our demonstration website can be found at http://cuMedLearn.org. Design of effective teaching and learning tools is half of the equation. Equally important are the support services and technology infrastructure that must be in place for their use. Adapting lecture halls for multi-media instruction, providing students with assistance in connecting to the network in their dormitories, working with faculty to be sure they are confident of the new technology, and developing appropriate evalutaion tools are all challenges we have addressed over the past five years.