Wiki Use for Virtual Microscopy and Pathology Reports

I found this cool article that reviewed the use of wikis at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine. They have a pathology program there where they created several wikis for educational purposes. They use virtual microscopy where students scan microbial slides by various sections and then other learners can manipulate the images by zooming in, underlining things, adding arrows, labeling attributes, etc. Students group images by topic and are even able to edit other student’s slides. This is all preparing them to work as pathologists and I thought that it was a unique way to develop these professional skills. Students also participate in discussions on the wiki and share new ideas with each other. 

The college discovered that this method of instruction produced an extremely detailed analysis of the subject matter. It was also beneficial because the students could access this archive at any time for knowledge management. The instructors reviewed student access and tracked participation and produsage via Google Analytics. I think that this is a neat way of assessing/evaluating students and I believe that this could be the way of the future. 

The authors of this article also talked about the authenticity of the archive/retrieval model and how hospitals already rely on this methodology. The information is easily accessible, always readily available with the touch of a finger, and shareable at all times. After more than 200 microscopic images were uploaded and analyzed, the program was able to use this wiki for building diagnostic lab reports. 

Zev Leifer, “The Use of Virtual Microscopy and a Wiki in Pathology Education: Tracking Student Use, Involvement, and Response,” Analytical Cellular Pathology, vol. 2014, Article ID 274134, 1 pages, 2014. doi:10.1155/2014/274134