IU’s Rosenbaum, Braun honored by IHETS

Integrating technology and pedagogy creates a ‘Virtual Economy’ and a diagnostic module for future physicians

By Jayne Spencer

Braun

The winners were announced last week at the annual IHETS meeting on instructional technology. The IU School of Library and Information Science’s Howard Rosenbaum and Dr. Mark Braun, an IU clinical professor of pathology for the statewide Medical Sciences Program’s Bloomington site, along with Dana Willett, production manager in instructional technology services at the University of Southern Indiana, were the recipients.

“Though the award is brand new, receiving it is no small honor. The competition in this category was very strong indeed, with many high-caliber nominees,” said Susan Scott, IHETS director of resource development and management.

Rosenbaum teaches a graduate course on electronic commerce at IUB, integrating problem-based learning pedagogy with a Web-based interactive simulation of a competitive free marketplace, the “virtual economy” (VE).

Student teams design, create and manage their own Internet businesses and operate them in a virtual economy for two months.

The students attempt to outsell and out strategize their competitors in the quest for profits and market share. The semester with the most profits wins. This term, there are 400 shoppers from 11 graduate and undergraduate business schools in five countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Germany and Australia.

In the class, small teams of students are presented with a complex and ill-structured problem: how to design, build and manage a Web-based E-business.

Students engage in sustained critical thinking, using analytic and technical skills in the VE to become digital entrepreneurs. Teaching strategies are shaped by the central problem. Readings and class activities closely follow the components of the problem the students are completing. Class time is used to discuss problems arising in the development of their stores in the context of the relevant problem component (for example, developing an E-business customer service strategy). Rosenbaum meets with each group every other week and is in constant E-mail contact with them. His roles are to be a critical listener—objectively evaluating suggested resolutions; a facilitator—steering them toward resources; and an arbitrator—resolving group conflict. The meetings reveal the extent to which students are mastering the technical and social problems of creating and managing E-businesses. The course is one of only a handful of classes in the country using this type of advanced simulation technology, uniquely strengthened by creative application of new pedagogy.

Students also learn about the history, development and economics of E-Commerce. They read and discuss current policy documents and research reports that are shaping the field of E-commerce.

Braun directs “C601-602: Pathology” for second-year medical students. In addition to classroom lectures and labs, he has developed a Web site to enhance learning in pathology. The first part of the site includes scanned slides of pathological specimens that the students can review. At the end of each “disease module,” students take an online quiz to test their understanding of pathological processes. The second part of the site includes 23 simulated clinical cases developed by Braun. These cases include movies of a “patient” describing his/her symptoms, discussion of lab tests needed and differential diagnosis. The cases are interactive, provide continual feedback to the student, and are an enjoyable way to learn about disease processes. As a result, students do not merely memorize “facts” about a disease; they examine consequences that diseases may have on an individual, and the repercussions a poorly conceived diagnosis may have.

Braun also has invested time in evaluating the long-term efficacy of these learning modules. Working extensively with colleagues at the IU School of Education to develop a survey tool, he has collected longitudinal data from past students about how well these modules prepared them for their clinical rotations in medical school. The result is an interactive learning experience that can also serve as a stand-alone distance education tool. In 1999, Braun was the recipient of the American Medical Association Innovative Basic Science Faculty Member Award.

http://ebiz.slis.indiana.edu/ebizp/

http://www.iub.edu/~tltl/projects/braun/index.html