Easy to use. Time saver. Searchable.
These were some of the words used by the individuals who test piloted UNMC’s new E-Gallery, a collection of e-learning modules created by UNMC faculty and students through the Interactive E-Learning Program.
Development team
The E-Gallery development team includes:
- Megan Blusys, Academic Affairs
- Peggy Moore, April Elker, and Christopher Spurgin, Interactive E-Learning Program
- Cindy Schmidt, M.D., and Euem Osmera, McGoogan Library
- Dan Moser, Ph.D., and Eric Lasher, Information Technology Services
Under the leadership of Dele Davies, M.D., vice chancellor for academic affairs, representatives from across campus spent more than a year researching and developing the proper platform to best deliver the e-learning content.
“Since the launch of the campus-wide e-learning initiative, our goal has been to make every single module accessible to every student registered at UNMC, irrespective of their location in Nebraska or around the world. This gallery enables us to meet this goal,” Dr. Davies said. “With ongoing strong demand from all the colleges to have access to interactive tools to augment the learning of our students, I am delighted that our dedicated team of instructional designers, librarians and information technology staff have hit the mark in the creation of this site.”
Peggy Moore, director of e-learning, agreed.
“The successful launch of our E-Gallery is a culmination of hundreds of hours of hard work and dedication by our team. It is because of them that we are able to publish this valuable content created by UNMC faculty and students.”
The E-Gallery currently houses more than 70 e-modules, and that number should double by the end of 2017.
Module content varies greatly, both in delivery format and topic. Students can learn how to take a patient’s history or do a physical exam, play a race car game to learn about gout, or participate in activities to match drugs with their side effects. Much of the content applies to various areas of health sciences, so it can be multi-purposed across disciplines.
However, there are some uniform components of every module based on the current evidence on best practices, including learning objectives, interactivity, inserted quizzes and instant feedback, among others.
Moore anticipates many faculty will soon take advantage of the benefits the E-Gallery offers.
“By gathering all the e-modules into one area, the E-Gallery makes it easy for faculty to quickly find the content they need. They can see existing content that has already been created, so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel for their own courses,” she said. “It’s a timesaver we’d all enjoy.”