Creating an Open-Access Educational Radiology Website for Medical Students: A Guide for Radiology Educators.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Studies of medical school clerkship websites have reported efficient time management, resource utilization, and hands-on activities. We built a website devoted to medical student education in radiology to address student, educator, and school curricular needs and surveyed students to assess their satisfaction with the site. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The website was created using an easily-recalled name, no-cost institutional software, and no-cost enterprise-level university hardware. The main menu links to the student formal didactic lecture calendar, custom-built health sciences library e-resources in radiology, American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria, each radiology course page, and teaching files. Each course tab includes faculty-curated content from course lectures, supplemental articles and educational modules. At 6, 12, and 24 months, website analytics were assessed. At 12 and 24 months postimplementation, data were evaluated to include student assessment and satisfaction surveys and student course comments. This project was IRB-exempted. RESULTS: At 6 months, the website had received 5792 views, at 12 months 10,022 views and at 24 months 19,478 views. The website homepage with the formal didactic lecture calendar received 7156 views, the general clerkship page 4233 views, the teaching file page 3884, and thereafter subspecialty pages as follows: breast 1478, body 633, pediatrics 361, neuro 346, cardiothoracic 291, musculoskeletal 249, vascular interventional 178. One hundred fifty-two of 240 (63.3%) of students surveyed replied. Of students who utilized the website on the satisfaction survey, 80 of 97 (82.5%) indicated ratings of "extremely informative" and "very informative" to the question "How would you rate the website?." Students indicated convenience and structure as website strengths in their postcourse evaluations. CONCLUSION: The radiology medical student website incorporates demands and needs of today's students, faculty, and our medical school. A radiology clerkship website for medical students centralizes access to course resources and promotes an active learning experience with high satisfaction. Instructions on setting up a website are offered to today's radiology educators, including pearls and pitfalls.

Understanding science teachers' implementations of integrated STEM curricular units through a phenomenological multiple case study.

BACKGROUND: Current reforms in K-12 STEM education call for integration between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Such integration of STEM disciplines at the K-12 level offers students an opportunity to experience learning in real-world, multidisciplinary contexts; however, there is little reported research about teachers' experiences in engaging in integrated STEM instruction. The purpose of this phenomenological multiple case study is to understand nine science teachers' first-time experiences in implementing integrated STEM curricular units in their middle school physical science classrooms. This study draws upon both classroom implementation data and teacher reflective interviews to illustrate different degrees of integrated STEM instruction and to understand teachers' challenges and successes with these varying approaches. RESULTS: Our results indicate three distinct cases of integration within our sample that represent low, medium, and high degrees of STEM integration throughout curriculum implementations. Interviews with teachers from each case revealed three themes that varied across teachers' experiences: the nature of integration, choosing between science and engineering, and student engagement and motivation. Teachers in all three cases were challenged to make explicit connections between science, engineering, and mathematics while simultaneously maintaining a motivating and engaging context for their students throughout their instruction. Further, it appears that the degree of STEM integration that occurs in instruction may be related to teachers' ability to make explicit connections between the disciplines. CONCLUSIONS: The work presented here informs educational researchers, policy makers, and K-12 STEM educators that there are several challenges when it comes to implementing new STEM initiatives in K-12 education. Although this work is limited to middle school physical science teachers' experiences with first-time STEM instruction, many of the identified themes are not content-specific; therefore, this work may shed light on general struggles that are common to educators who are integrating across content disciplines for the first time.