Ricardo Pietrobon, Assistant Professor, Surgery, School of Medicine

Project description
The purpose of this project was to investigate the efficacy of a software tool, Manuscript Architect (MA), in improving the scientific writing ability of students in Health Sciences related fields. MA, previously created by the project PI and his staff, allows focused and collaborative writing, with embedded examples and feedback.

During the study, 48 students from Medicine, Physical Therapy and Nursing participated, 24 using the tool and 24 using traditional writing methods. The students prepared a section of a scientific paper and their results were judged by external/blind reviewers. In addition the students themselves were interviewed and their interviews were transcribed and analyzed.

The major results were that students faced cognitive burden in learning to write well using standard scientific writing styl, but the MA group found the support and collaboration provided by the tool helpful. The control group found it hard to distinguish content and structure issues in their papers, while the test group was better able to do this. Analysis of the papers showed using MA provided a statistically significant improvement in organization of the text and flow of argument than the control group, although there was not a differencein writing quality at the sentence level between the two groups. On this aspect of the grant Pietrobon is finished with the data analysis and close to a first draft of the paper.

Those wishing to receive access to Manuscript Architect for their own courses or research should contact Ricardo Pietrobon.

Project start date: 6/30/2005
Funding awarded: $40,000

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Victoria Kaprielian, Clinical Professor, Community and Family Medicine, School of Medicine
Beau Wiseman, Training Coordinator, Community and Family Medicine, School of Medicine
Barbara Gregory, Clincal Research Coordinator, Community and Family Medicine, School of Medicine

This project created six interactive online modules to teach key concepts of patient safety and quality improvement to health care professions trainees (medical, physician assistant, nursing and others).

The module topics are:

• What is quality improvement?
• The how’s and why’s of chart audits
• The evolution of quality and safety in health care
• Culture of safety
• Anatomy of error
• Mistake-proofing care

The modules were created using Macromedia Flash by a local multimedia/web programming firm contracted for this project. Kaprielian, Wiseman and Gregory served as project coordinators and content authors.

The modules were first incorporated into the second year medical curriculum in Fall 2005, and later into the Family Medicine and the physician assistant curricula, where they are still actively used in summer 2007. The modules are available to the entire Duke University community, on the web or on CD.

In the medical student program, students completed pre- and post-module tests on patient safety culture and content knowledge. Results of these studies were to be analyzed following additional data collection in August 2006. Impact of the modules in other programs was to be judged using post-module surveys.

Project start date: 5/19/2004
Funding awarded: $39,721

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Joshua Sosin, Associate Professor, Classical Studies, Arts & Sciences
Mary Boatwright, Director of Graduate Studies and Professor of Ancient History, Classical Studies, Arts & Sciences
Ken Rigsby, Professor of Epigraphy and Ancient History, Classical Studies, Arts & Sciences

Project description

The Classical Studies department sought this grant to digitize their collection of 18,000 slides, developing a database of rich metadata and high-resolution slides using the Luna Insight image management system.
By creating a rich slide collection, the department hoped to enhance accessibility of their slide collection (and make it easier to use the slides in the classroom), to encourage student interest and research in ancient material culture, foster a sense of continuity across the Classics curriculum by sharing visual information between courses, improve links between Classics and other disciplines, and enrich the traditional text-centered approach to teaching in Classical Studies.

CIT funding provided for assistance in digitization of the department’s slides through a combination of vendor outsourcing and in-house work. In addition, staffing paid for through the funding created metadata for each slide for easy search and retrieval.

After testing of the Luna Insight image management system with the collection, the images were transferred to a new system, MDID, currently being used for image access by Art & Art History, Classics and other departments. As of Fall 2007, creation of metadata and digitization of slides from the collection continues using funding originally provided as part of this CIT grant.

Project start date: 5/19/2004
Funding awarded: $32,700

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Joan Clifford, Visiting Assistant Professor, Romance Studies, Arts & Sciences

Project description

The grant team planned to develop a digital video archive of authentic interviews with native Spanish speakers living in central North Carolina, to serve as the basis for language-based activities to be used in homework, individual practice, skill assessment and in-class practice in undergraduate Spanish courses.
“Voices from the Latino Community in North Carolina” is a digital archive of interviews with Latino immigrants living in North Carolina in 2004-2005. The interviews were conducted by a team of instructors from the Duke University Spanish Language Program as well as undergraduate students. The project participants represent a wide range of nationalities and professions.

The project team also created interactive activities that may be used to practice linguistic skills and to explore issues of immigration. Access to authentic stories helped expand our knowledge of the growing Latino community and perhaps dispelled some of the misconceptions about the Latino community in North Carolina. Many sections of the interviews were transcribed (in Spanish) and new materials were continually added to the project website through 2006.

Project start date: 5/19/2004
Funding awarded: $15,850

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Edward Buckley, Professor, Ophthamology and Pediatrics, School of Medicine

Project description

Accreditation and certification requirements for medical students include that they must meet certain learning objectives with regard to patient encounters (have had experience interacting with and diagnosing patients with a variety of illnesses and situations). Merely placing students in clinical situations does not ensure that all learning objectives have been met.

This project produced an interface for PDAs which integrates with Duke’s existing “PatientKeeper” software, allowing students to input data about their patient encounters and to tie those experiences to specific learning objectives. Clinical instructors, course directors and curriculum planners were able to access the student information to enable adjustments to the students’ education program (seeing additional patients with specific diseases, for example), assess students’ depth of understanding, or highlight objectives which may need to be revised.

Project start date: 5/19/2004
Funding awarded: $25, 829

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John Taormina; Curator of Visual Resources; Art, Art History & Visual Resources

Project Description

The Art & Art History Department sought grant funding to begin the process of formal digitization and online access to images for use in teaching Western Art survey courses. The project included in-house and outsourced digitization of slides in the collection, purchase of digital images through subscription and licensing, and creation of metadata to accompany the images for search and retrieval. In addition, the project included a joint project with Duke Libraries to pilot the use of Luna Insight image management software for accessing and using the images.

The transition to digital of slide collections has been an emerging issue for Art History departments and the CIT grant was intended to facilitate this process. By creating a digital slide collection, the department hoped to increase access to digital images by faculty teaching classes and create more flexibility in working with images in courses. The Luna Insight software provided the ability for faculty to create custom collections for study by students and easily arrange material for lectures and other classroom activities.

In the second phase of the project, started in Spring 2004, development of the Wester Art survey image archive continued and digitization and acquisition of images to support teaching in the areas of Asian Art and introductory graphic design were added. The Library and the Art Department tested the Luna Insight software and the images were transferred to a new system, MDID@Duke, that is currently being used by Art & Art History for the collections. As of Fall 2007, creation of metadata and digitization of slides from the collection continues using funding originally provided as part of this CIT grant; Art & Art History courses in Fall 2007 will be testing MDID software as an access tool for the collections.

Additional participants

• Stanley Abe, Associate Professor, Chinese Art,Theory & Criticism (phase 1)
• Mark Antliff, Professor, 20th Century Art, Theory & Criticism (phase 2)
• Anya Belkina, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Visual Arts, Drawing & Computer Graphics (phase 2)
• Caroline Bruzelius, Anne M. Cogan Professor, Medieval Architecture & Sculpture, History of France & Italy Architectural History Medieval, Renaissance, and Islamic Art (phase 2)
• Sheila Dillon, Associate Professor of Art History, Greek & Roman Art and Classical Studies (phase 1)
• Jack Edinger, Staff, Art and Art History (phase 2)
• Patricia Leighton, Professor, Late 19th and Early 20th Century Art, History of Photography, Theory & Criticism (phase 2)
• Neil McWilliam, Walter H. Annenberg Professor, European Art 1780-1900, French Sculpture, History of Art Criticism (phase 2)
• Richard Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor, American, Afro-American and African Art (phase 1 & 2)
• Hans van Miegroet, Professor, Early Modern Art (Department Chair) (phase 1 & 2)
• Annabel Wharton, William B. Hamilton Professor, Early Christian and Byzantine Art & Architecture, Modern Architecture (phase 2)

Project start date: 8/01/2002
Funding awarded: $14,400 (Phase 1, Fall 2002), $30,034 (Phase 2, Spring 2004)

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