Participants should come to the workshop with a goal of producing or managing medium to large scale digital and print education content projects. An understanding of technical concepts and terminology such as stylesheets, HTML-XHTML and XML will be helpful but not necessary. To maximize the workshop experience please come prepared with a general understanding of Ebooks (resources below) and specific questions of how Ebooks can benefit your particular situation.

Producing digital medical education content is an increasingly complicated task due to the amount of legacy--often disparate--material and the many formats or delivery channels desired by students and authors. Despite the desire for a single "Holy Grail" delivery format educators are faced with publishing and delivering to multiple medium at the same time (paper, PDF, Ebook, HTML, Flash, XML, Powerpoint, etc.). Producing and managing content in this demanding environment is challenging. In addition to current delivery requirements it is also necessary to organize our materials in a way that allows re-purposing of our existing content to new and emerging medium.

Ebook is a relatively new and promising digital delivery channel that benefits students and educators. With all new technologies there is uncertainty and apprehension about the useful application, enhancement and benefit in the learning environment--Ebook is no exception. Our objective of using Ebook is to understand and identify its potential for enhancing the teaching capacities of both the School of Medicine and University Health Sciences by assembling critical medical education into a single, indexed, globally accessible resource. Data from decades of publicly and privately held teaching files, course syllabi, course lectures and textbooks currently reside in disparate and often inaccessible states which restricts the efforts of educators to carry out their work.

This workshop will:

1. Introduce participants to the uses and scalability of the Ebook method and format for delivery of graphic-rich medical educational materials (book, lab manual, teaching file).
2. Traverse the range of Ebook production tools and readers.
3. Provide a tutorial-lecture of two case studies on the production of Ebook materials from newly and previously authored content in a cross-media environment.
4. Facilitate an open discussion with participants on their content production experiences and environments and the place of Ebook in medical education.

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:

Participants will learn the benefits of Ebook, understand how to integrate Ebook publishing into their current environment, and have a general feel for the Ebook publishing tools and readers. In addition, participants will leave the workshop with enough understanding of Ebook to know if they want to begin integration of Ebook into their home processes and environment.

Ebook Resources:

Ebook is an electronic book format with added features for text searching, interactive dictionaries, user annotation, and rich media. At this time there is no single Ebook format. Adobe eBook is one of the most mature Ebook formats. More information on Ebooks can be found at the following Internet Web sites:

http://www.ebookweb.org
http://www.openEbook.com
http://www.adobe.com/epaper/ebooks/main.html

Session Leaders:

Chris Cochella, along with Paul Burrows presented "When HTML Falls Short: Why and How Data-Based Information Is Deployed on the Web", at the 1998 Slice of Life: Technology in Medical Education.

Jason Lauman is the chief information architect at EMERG, Department of Radiology, University of Utah.

The Electronic Medical Education Resource Group (EMERG) at the University of Utah has been researching and developing methodologies and software tools that support medical research and education. The end-goal of EMERG is to provide authors, teachers and students the ability to create, store, index, retrieve and view disparate information in a cross-media environment.

The results and experience presented in this workshop are based on EMERG’s participation in the Adobe eBook U program (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200105/20010514Ebooku.html)

Christopher Cochella
Electronic Medical Education Resource Group , Department of Radiology, University of Utah, 729 Arapeen Way, Salt Lake City, UT, 84105
Phone: 801-588-0494
Fax: 801-883-0551
Email: chris@cochella.com

CO-LEADER:
Jason R. Lauman
Electronic Medical Education Resource Group , Department of Radiology, University of Utah, 729 Arapeen Way, Salt Lake City, UT, 84105 
Phone: 801-581-2976
Fax: 801-581-3222
Email: jason.lauman@hsc.utah.edu