Volume 2. No 1
Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis October 1993
Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis October 1993
While future physicians of America arrive at medical school with a knack for memorizing scientific detail, the medical practices that await them demand an ability to assimilate the details into diagnoses.
Enter "MoBy: A Study Aid for Medical Students." Created by Harry Matthews, a professor of Biological Chemistry in the School of Medicine, MoBy teaches students how to apply medical knowledge to new situations.
"The lecture format does a good job of explaining things, but students need to have the ability to take information from two different lectures and put it together," says Matthews who developed MoBy to supplement lectures in his molecular and cell biology classes for first- and second-year medical students. Structured in a traditional question-and-answer format, MoBy hosts a number of support utilities which allow students to work at different levels depending on where they are in their studies. Students questioning the information can find out which lecture covered the topic, and they can test their test-taking skills. If a student answers one of the 250 questions incorrectly, MoBy tells why the selected answer was a bad choice.
MoBy's "hotwords" system directs students to a glossary of over 600 medical terms. When a student comes to a "hotword," the pointer turns to a box. A click on the mouse, and the meaning appears.
Bringing the biological concepts to life is an animation of a molecule which allows students to study the 3-dimensional structure from different angles. Students can use MoBy to manipulate the speed at which the molecule rotates and pause to study how different chemicals prompt changes in the molecular structure.
"The information sticks in students minds better when they can visualize it," Matthews says.
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