INTEGRATING VIRTUAL MICROSCOPY WITH A COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Haiyan He*, John Jackson, University of Virginia School of Medicine, P.O. Box 800859, Charlottesville, VA 22908 U.S.A

PURPOSE: Virtual microscopy systems have very limited educational tools available. Most systems only offer collections of images and simple quizzes. We expanded the scope of virtual microscopy use by integrating Aperio’s technologies into our course management system applications including: virtual patient cases, practice quizzes, on-line testing, virtual labs and multimedia database.

METHODS: Using the virtual microscopy application tools provided by Aperio, we modified the code in each of our applications to support virtual microscope images in the same way that they support JPEG, GIF, MOV, SWF and other common file types. When faculty include a virtual microscope image in any exercise our web applications automatically generate all the necessary code to display the image. Faculty can continue to use the tools that they already know with the expanded capabilities of virtual microscopy including annotations, pan, zoom and focus. Virtual microscopy images are displayed embedded within web pages or in pop-up windows, depending upon the application.

RESULTS: Faculty and student response has been very positive with our initial deployment. Faculty have been able to use the virtual microscopy images within an array of applications with very little training. Formal evaluation will begin Fall, 2008.

CONCLUSION/FUTURE DIRECTIONS: We are working with Aperio to define ways that multiple annotations may be stored for individual images. We are also participating in the AAMC task force that will define best methods for sharing virtual microscopy resources between institutions.