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TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY

Curriculum development and technology incorporation in teaching neuroscience to graduate students in a medical school environment

¹ Institute of Neuroscience, Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics, Department of Neurology
² Division of Visual and Instructional Design, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: D. W. Brann, Institute of Neuroscience, 1120 15th St., Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA 30912 (e-mail: dbrann{at}mcg.edu)

Abstract

Today's neuroscience faculty member wears multiple hats and requires diverse skills to succeed in the competitive environment in which they find themselves. A common refrain from graduates is that there is a need for better training in the diverse, multiple skills that they will need to succeed in obtaining a faculty position and excelling in that position once it is obtained. Our university recently developed a new neuroscience graduate program that allowed us to create a curriculum and core courses de novo and that could be tailored to provide training in diverse skills used by everyday neuroscience faculty members. The current article details our rationale, design, and implementation of this new curriculum and its two major core courses. The genesis of the new curriculum also provided an opportune time to introduce and test new teaching technology in the two neuroscience core courses. The technology incorporated included on-line WebCT course sites, computer performance system, and the Tegrity system. Herein, we elaborate on our experiences with the use of this technology in the small class graduate course setting and provide insight on student feedback on the perceived effectiveness of the technology. The mechanisms and considerations that are needed for incorporation of such technology are also discussed. While no single curriculum or technology incorporation scheme will be applicable to all programs, it is hoped that our experiences in curriculum design and technology incorporation will be beneficial to other universities as they consider refining existing programs or beginning new ones.

Key words: education; neurobiology; WebCT; Tegrity; course design