DEMONSTRATION
Feast or Famine for Digital Multimedia Sharing
Bruce Holmes and Wes Robertson,
ABSTRACT:
Medical schools have
been investigating methods of storing and sharing their digital media files for
years. These discussions have ranged from national digital repositories to
shared open-source platforms and, of course, in-house initiatives. However,
despite both good intentions and major technical progress, medical schools are
still unable to take full advantage of the rich technological resources we all
have access to. In fact, medical schools currently face a "feast and
famine" situation when it comes to developing and sharing non-commercial
online educational multimedia.
Feast
Due to the
ever-decreasing cost and complexity of the required equipment, there have never
been so many people working on the development of high quality multimedia
materials, and entire conferences (such as Slice of Life) have even been
dedicated to the subject.
Famine
Most of the material
being developed is being done in one-time, limited-funding projects within a
single medical school, often using complex formats unique to that application,
and usually with no time to think about coordinating or sharing the development
with other medical schools.
Feast
The success of the
open-source software movement, and the activities of groups like the
Association of Canadian Medical Colleges, have given many people a vision of a
possible future landscape in which sharing becomes the norm, overcoming
geographic, political, and other barriers.
Famine
The fear of and
uncertainty about copyright and intellectual property laws, as well as the often
unstated wish to "protect" materials from widespread distribution in
the hope of future commercial sale, have up to now severely limited the amount
of material that is openly shared.
Feast
A wide variety of
sophisticated online broadband enabled media libraries have sprung up over the
past five years, all promising us easy access to huge libraries of medical
education materials that we can use in our own educational programs.
Famine
Most of the existing
online media libraries, though technically sound, do not have clear plans to
organize and manage the building up of content collections, and tend to contain
a smattering of "test" content, or the collections of a few, eager
participants.
Feast
Some medical schools
have obtained major funding for large development projects, and have offered to
collaborate with others.
Famine
Medical schools
without much capacity in this area are unsure how to collaborate on an even
footing with well-funded schools.
We developed general
guidelines and examples for creating a standard format, or “common currency”
for shareable multimedia medical education materials; one that is inexpensive
to produce, but which produces consistently high quality results. In
particular, we have developed all material “from scratch” and ensured that
signoff was obtained from all participants assigning their copyright interests
to the University, which in turn has licensed the material for open sharing,
and any non-commercial use. Our presentation will highlight the guidelines,
demonstrate one example of a procedural skill, and refer participants to a
website where they can obtain free copies of all the examples.
BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:
We developed general
guidelines and examples for creating a standard format, or “common currency”
for shareable multimedia medical education materials; that is inexpensive to
produce, but which produces consistently high quality results. They can be used
for learning a procedure for the first time in Undergraduate Medical Education,
or as a refresher in Continuing Medical Education. Curriculum designers will
have a standardized resource for all their learners and for their clinical
teachers. The examples that we have developed are freely shareable, and easily
accessible from a public website. The examples are available in online
streaming, file-based, and PDA playable formats.
Bruce Holmes
Executive Director
Learning Resource
Centre
Dalhousie University
Faculty of Medicine 5599 Fenwick Street
Halifax, NS
Canada
B3H 1R2
Phone: 902-494-1879
Fax: 902-494-3187
Website: http://currency.medicine.dal.ca/
CO-AUTHORS:
Wes Robertson
Director, Information
Technology
Dalhousie University
Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Centre
5849 University
Avenue
Halifax, NS
Canada
B3H 4H7
Phone: 902-494-2709
Fax: 902-494-2046
Website: http://currency.medicine.dal.ca/