The Open University history of medicine CD‐ROM

Abstract

In 2004, the Open University will launch a new second-level survey course in the social history of European medicine—its first ever offering in this area. The team behind this new venture hope to make the course distinctively different from similar courses taught in conventional universities through the inclusion of a strong visual element. This will be delivered via an interactive CD-ROM, which will be integrated with the more traditional print and video material. This decision reflects the increasing interest in images as resources for the study of the history of medicine, and the university’s wider Learning and Teaching Strategy which aims to include an ICT component in all courses by 2005. The CD-ROM will give students the opportunity to explore the wealth of visual material associated with medicine—anatomical drawings, hospital plans, fever maps, portraits of eminent practitioners. It will provide material that offers particular insights into aspects of medical history: hospital plans, for example, convey a sense of the spatial organization of care that texts simply cannot replicate. Visual images can also provide alternative perspectives on events: early nineteenth century cartoons poking fun at practitioners provide a vivid contrast to doctors’ presentation of themselves as honest, caring and gentlemanly. The new course will use the CD-ROM’s unique facilities to present material in an accessible and interesting way. It will include animations of still images, such as the illustrations of Harvey’s experiments on the circulation. It will also present combinations of different types of image, such as plans of hospitals linked to photographs of the interior of wards. However, images will not be used simply as illustrations to supplement texts. By combining images with text, students will be taught to use images as important primary sources, to analyse the information conveyed by images and to think of how the content of pictures related to their intended audience. The interactive element of ICT is especially helpful for Open University students working at a distance, whose interaction with tutors and other students is somewhat limited. Traditionally, OU course books have included exercises that encourage the reader to think through ideas, to apply concepts presented in one historical context to different sets of circumstances and to draw together information from different parts of any course. These exercises encourage the students to engage with the material and provide some of the experience of a dialogue between student and teacher, allowing students to articulate the new knowledge and ideas they have acquired and thus develop a deeper understanding of concepts. These objectives can be replicated on CD-ROM, with the advantage of interactive feedback geared to the student’s responses. This allows students not only to test their grasp of new information and ideas but to identify and receive guidance on how to improve weak areas in their knowledge. Although the CD-ROM is designed specifically for the OU course, it is hoped that it will be copublished and thus available to be purchased ‘off-the-shelf’ for use by students in other universities studying the history of medicine. Library staff will play a central role in the development of this CD-ROM and of other new ICT material. The Library has already produced ROUTES—a database of links to Web materials tailored to specific courses—which Library staff actively manage and maintain. CD-ROM adds another element to resource provision: the CD-ROM requires written and image resources, linked to Web resources. Library staff supporting the history of medicine course team will be assessing the range of image databases available and ensuring that course teams are aware of what is on the market. The Library had already begun to expand the collection of visual resources available to academic staff by subscribing to SCRAN, a massive resource base designed especially for education, and will be building on this further. This article was written by Debbie Brunton who is devising the course. If you are interested in knowing more then please contact Tricia Heffernan at e-mail:P.A.Heffernan@open.ac.uk