[The CDB Project is currently inactive. No resources are available for further development.]
Objectives
The curriculum database (CDB) project has two overall objectives:
- Collection of data describing teaching sessions in the BHB and MBChB Programmes.
- Provision of reports about curriculum content.
Aims
The specific aims of the CDB are:
- Development of a web based data entry system to collect and maintain information
about teaching sessions.
- Collection of teaching session data for each course in the BHB and MBChB Programmes.
- Creation of a map of curriculum content based on keywords for each teaching session.
- Provide data for timetabling of Courses and Programmes.
Progress to date
- A data base for the CDB was developed in association with the Electronic Campus
project. Mr Denis Stanton (Project Manager, Interactive Media Unit, ITSS) was responsible
for the Electronic Campus. He and Mr Hadley Wickham (Medical Student) created a
SQL database (Informix) and a web based editing system.
- A pilot database was created using a draft version of the "Disease Processes and
Therapeutic Principles" course which was subsequently taught in Semester 1 2001.
- Denis Stanton left ITSS at the end of 2000 and the Electronic Campus is no longer
supported. There is currently (June 2001) no database supporting the CDB project.
- A collection of reports have been created. Details of how reports are defined are
described here. Running a report generates a table presented in a web page. The
table can be selected then copied and pasted to other applications e.g. Excel
Example
All data shown is provisional
Sessions by discipline (count)
| distinct discipline
|
count
|
|
Biochemistry |
1 |
|
Clinical |
3 |
|
Clinical Pharmacology |
27 |
|
Community Health |
1 |
|
General
Practice |
1 |
|
Immunology |
4 |
|
Microbiology |
6 |
|
Molecular Medicine |
1 |
|
Pathology |
20 |
Using the CDB
The CDB was accessed via the Electronic Campus under the Administration topic. Access
is controlled through the use of NetAccount. Staff who needed to modify the CDB
had to apply for a NetAccount login and password and use the NetLogin application
on the computer they used to access the Electronic Campus. NetAccount login and
password can be obtained at the Philson Library by producing a valid University
ID Card.
Loading course and session data
Initial loading of data to the CDB is most easily done by providing information
in an Excel workbook. You may obtain a copy of a template workbook to enter data
for your Course.
The Worksheet contains macros. If you get a warning about macros you should Enable
Macros. The completed Excel spreadsheet should be emailed to Nick Holford.
The cdbcourse.xls file contains 4 worksheets:
- Staff Details: Table of Staff names associated with the paper with their telephone
extension, email alias, NetID, and primary Division or Discipline. Course coordinators
should add to this table. The telephone extension, email alias, NetID and Division/Discipline
can be found by using the Staff Directory. Hint: Set the Search By field to Partial
Family Name when using the Staff Directory search.
- Course: Table of teaching sessions and associated details. The broad outline of
the Course sessions is probably best done by the Paper Coordinator with the Title,
Outline and Topic fields being provided by the person responsible for teaching each
session (Session coordinator).
- Summary: Lists total number of sessions and total duration (hours) for each Teaching
Discipline. These values are automatically calculated from the data in the Courses
worksheet when you enter a Teaching Discipline name in the first column.
- Lookups: Tables of Divisions and Teaching disciplines. Course coordinators should
add to this table.
Session: The number of the session in the planned sequence for this Course.
Staff: Name of person responsible for providing teaching in this session. This person
is the Session Coordinator. It is not necessarily the person who actually teaches
the session.
NetID: Previously known as a UPI or Unique Public Identifier. "UPIs have been developed
to provide names that can be used for computer accounts throughout the University
while satisfying the dual requirements of guaranteed uniqueness and being in the
public domain." Automatically filled in if the Staff worksheet contains the NetID
and the session coordinator name is the same in the Staff and Course worksheets.
The NetID is an essential part of the CDB system and is used to link staff members
with specific Coursess and Sessions.
Teaching Discpline: The Teaching Discipline reflects the academic grouping for the
session topic. Some Divisions (previously known as Departments) may have TDs within
them e.g. Microbiology in Molecular Medicine, others may be the same as the Division
e.g. Pathology, and others may span Divisions and Disciplines e.g. Clinical Pharmacology
involves staff from the Divisions of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology and
Medicine and the Discipline of Pharmacy. Members of Teaching Disciplines will usually
coordinate their TD content across Courses in the Medical Program.
Week: Week of the semester
Day and Time: Day of the week (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri) and Time of day (use HH:MM
format e.g. 8:00) Duration: Session duration in hours (or parts of an hour).
Streams: If the class is split into streams the number of simultaneous streams should
be indicated here e.g. Streams should be 2 if the class is split into 2 groups taught
at the same time.
Size: Fraction of the class in each stream e.g. two simultaneous streams with half
the class in each stream should have Streams 2 and Size 0.5. If streams are not
simultanous e.g. half the class one week and the other half get the same session
the following week then use 2 sessions with Streams 1 and Size 0.5.
FTEh: Full Time Equivalent Hours. Calculated from Duration*Streams*Size. Indicates
the number of full time equivalent student hours associated with the session. One
FTEh represents the full class attending a one hour session.
Type: Pick from Lecture (basic unit of instruction); Practical (teaching session
of a practical nature; use Practical rather than Laboratory); Tutorial (small group
learning session); Workshop (review/integrative session); Clinic (clinical involving
a patient); SDL (Self directed Learning).
Title: Session title. Brief descriptive identifier for the session.
Outline: Brief description of the content and objectives of the session. Typically
a single paragraph. Detail sufficient for others to get a clear idea of the material
taught in that session.
Topic: Words or short phrases which can be used to build a list of keywords. Each
word or phrase should be separated by a semi-colon e.g. Anatomy; Coronary artery;
blood flow. In future these topic words/phrases will be used to build a list of
keywords. Keywords will be be restricted to a specific list used for defined searches
on the content of the curriculum.
Comment: This field can be used for notes about this session during development
of the Course worksheet. It is not used in the CDB.
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