Developing an ELearning Community at Aga Khan University

1
Developing an E-Learning Community at Aga Khan
University

• Syed Ahmed Naqvi, Audio Visual Library,
• The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

2
Introduction

• The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Chartered in
  1983 as Pakistans first private university.
  AKUs objective is the development of human
  resource that is relevant to developing
  countries. AKU provide quality medical education
  and health services with a major commitment to
  orientation. It is for this reason that its
  medical college places great emphasis on
  preparing future physicians to deal with problems
  of health relevant to Pakistan and other
  developing countries, particularly the poor in
  the both urban and rural settlements.

3
Introduction

• In November 1994, Chancellors Commission Report
  on The Future of The Aga Khan University
  Evolution of a Vision, came which stressed that
  the future AKU should have three characteristics
• A university on the Information superhighways
  of the world
• A university using superior educational methods
  and techniques
• A university devoted to advancing the status
  and professional opportunities for women

4
AKU Library

• Aga Khan University Library stocks some 26,000
  books/monographs. Periodical section currently
  subscribes to nearly 500 journals in medical,
  nursing and basic science disciplines and holds
  their bound back runs since 1983 and even
  earlier.
• In addition to printed material, the library also
  provides access to Health and Education
  literature databases through MEDLINE, CINAHL and
  ERIC. It provides access to catalogues and
  inter-library loan facilities of other leading
  libraries of the world via Internet.

5
AKU Library

• Total books 28,100
• Journals 467
• Online Journals 250
• Library membership over 5000
• Gate count daily 1000 persons
• Library Journal budget Rs. 170,00,000
• Books budget Rs. 2 million
• books added annually 1000-1200
• Books issued (year 2004) 18,574

6
AV Library

• Audio Visual library at the Aga Khan University
  is divided into 6 areas.
• Library
• Learning Resource Centre
• Digital Design
• Photography
• Video Recording
• A.V. Equipment Borrowing.

7
AV Library

• Library section has a big collection of over 2000
  
• Videos
• CDs
• Slide Atlases
• Sound Slide Programs
• Audios
• TV VCR sets and Slide Viewers are placed in LRC
  to view this collection. The collection is
  comprised of local and imported material.
• Digitization process of the collection has begun.
  The catalogue and the links are available on the
  AKU intranet so the maximum numbers of users have
  easy and fast access to the collection.

8
Learning Resource Centre

• Learning Resource Centre was added in the
  university in 1995 considering the need of
  computer lab for student/faculty and staff. There
  are over 50 computers and all are interconnected.
  Users may use this facility for Teaching,
  Research and for other departmental activities.
  Self explanatory tutors are installed on every
  PC, Qualified staff is always present to help the
  users. Printing facility is available on minimal
  rate. Most of the PCs are capable to run
  multimedia CD-Roms available in the AV Library.
• Internet facility is been provided by AKUNET at
  LRC. Online Databases on Healthcare, Bioethics,
  and Nursing can be accessed using Winspirs
  software. LRC conducts computer courses for AKU
  faculty, student and staff.

9
Digital Design Section

• The creative team of this section provides total
  designing solutions, using computer applications
  such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator,
  Macromedia Freehand, Fractal Design Painter,
  Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Director, Infini-D,
  Sonic Sound Forge etc. produces high quality
  posters, banners, brochures, flyers,
  illustrations, graphs, computer generated slides,
  transparencies, 2D/3D animations, Multimedia
  presentation, CD-Rom Authoring.

10
Digital Design Section

• This section also has the variety of scanners
  such as flatbed scanner, 35mm slide scanner,
  X-ray scanner to digitize the material.
• It provides a wide range of color printing e.g.
  A0-A8, B0-B10 series and large format color
  plotter makes it unique with the other libraries
  as it provides the facility of large size color
  prints e.g. 56 inchesx100 feet.

11
Digital Design Section

• This section also conducts training / teaching
  workshops on Making Presentation by using
  PowerPoint, Photoshop, Scanner and Multimedia
  projector.

12
Photography section

• An experienced team of photographers has been
  contributing in many areas such as photography of
  Teaching, Research and Social events this
  includes Workshops, Seminars and Conferences,
  Operating room procedures, Clinical activities,
  Marketing campaigns.

13
Video recording section

• This section covers Workshops, Seminars,
  Conferences, Operating room procedures, Clinical
  activities, Marketing campaigns, Construction
  activities, and Musical and social evenings.
• Because of the use of latest technologies this
  section is growing day by day.

14
Equipment Borrowing Facility

• Audio Visual library provides the facility to
  borrow equipment such as Multimedia Projectors,
  Laptop Computers, Slide Projectors, Overhead
  Projectors, Slide Viewers, TV VCRs, Tape
  Recorder etc. to be used for teaching learning
  purposes.
• Users are expected to confirm the availability of
  the required equipment and make an advance
  booking.

15
Online Resources Developed for education at Aga
Khan University to make it an e-learning community
16
AKUMED

• AKUMed has been developed by the Department for
  Educational Development, Aga Khan University for
  students and faculty of the Medical College. It
  is a learning resource and has a wide variety of
  applications. Academic calendars, policies and
  procedures for assessment and promotion, goals
  and general objectives of the modules are
  available to users. Case of the week and related
  references will be available on the site. This
  site will also provide a system to the students
  and faculty to communicate with each other.
• The site is accessible both through the Intranet
  (on the university premises) and Internet. Access
  to the site is password protected and the users
  are expected to abide by the privacy policy of
  the site.Material on the site is property of Aga
  Khan University and must not be copied without
  permission.

17
Online Journal Access

• It is very important for a university, specially
  a medical university, to hold subscribed journals
  of a good quality. AKU subscribes to about 500
  journals and faculty and students use it to its
  max. To enhance readership and to ensure
  availability of each issue, current or previous,
  to faculty and students an initiative was taken
  to make them available online on AKUs intranet.
  This way anyone within Intranet will be able to
  access the journals anytime and any place (within
  AKU). Since bandwidth is always an issue and
  internet access is restricted, arrangements were
  made with ISD to ensure that faculty and students
  do not have to log on to internet when they
  access these journals.

18
Video Catalogue

• AVLRC caters to AKUs all audio and video
  requirements. All events, lectures, seminars,
  workshops conducted at AKU are recorded. AVLRC
  has a healthy collection of about 2000 videos
  and number of audio tapes available. This
  catalogue has now been made available on intranet
  to enable users to search and identify any audio
  visual artifacts they require. Efforts are also
  under way to digitize these artifacts and make
  them available online on intranet, so a user can
  see a specific video or listens to a audio tape
  right from his/her desktop rather than making a
  trip to LRC.

19
Online English Language Learning

• Online English Language Learning (OELL) is a fast
  and interactive form of language learning. It
  promotes student-centered instruction and
  transforms learning into a personalized
  experience. Through the online mode students can
  work without any time pressure and it also
  reduces the compulsion of being physically
  present in the classroom. This site aims to
  promote learner and teacher development, language
  skills enhancement, use of appropriate
  contextualized materials to cope with the need of
  the technological age.

20
Online English Language Learning

• OELL has been initiated by developing
  computer-based activities. These are in
  integrated with classroom-teaching tasks,
  whereby, teachers design lesson plans
  incorporating the developed online-tasks. These
  tasks focus on language skills like reading,
  vocabulary, structure and written expressions,
  study skills and writing. In addition a number of
  internet links have been provided to cater to a
  variety of skill based needs of the university
  students and learners.
• With the integration of the Online English
  Language Learning (OELL) programme we are hopeful
  to establish a sound base for the Information
  Communication Technology (ICT) integrated
  curriculum for our universitys academic and
  professional language learning programmes

21
Library of Images

• Medical images have always played a vital role in
  teaching and learning, for both faculty and
  undergraduate and postgraduate students of
  medicine. Difficult concepts and anatomical
  details are often more easily conveyed
  diagrammatically or by images. Aga Khan
  University Faculty of Health Sciences had an
  ever-increasing number of clinical images and
  data, which needed to be recorded and stored in a
  manner that was easily accessible to a large
  student body and a very busy faculty.
• The Library of Images will provide a readily
  accessible source of cataloged images and data
  graphs etc., which can be used for self-learning
  and presentations. This will both enhance the
  quality of presentations and reduce preparation
  time.
• The Library of Images will also allow resource
  sharing and avoid duplication of material
  development, reducing cost in the long run and
  allowing a centralised mechanism for recording
  the rich clinical material and information coming
  to the Institution as a tertiary care centre.

22
Digital Atlas of Microscopic Anatomy

• Creation of Digital Atlas of Microscopic Anatomy
  is a corollary to the introduction of
  Problem-Based Curriculum at the Aga Khan
  University. The author was a member of an Ad-Hoc
  committee that was assigned the task of review of
  the medical college curriculum. During the
  deliberations of the committee it was realized
  that development of new study materials was
  essential. Initial planning and photography of
  histological slides started in April, 2002.
  Designing and development of the Digital Atlas of
  Microscopic Anatomy thus continued along with the
  writing of cases for the different modules.
  Though this atlas is intended for undergraduate
  medical students with the emphasis on
  self-learning rather than didactic teaching,
  graduate students and faculty would find this
  atlas equally useful. The objective of this Atlas
  is to introduce users with the microscopic
  characteristics of cells, tissues, and organs.
  Each chapter has a list of objectives and the
  material is presented in a user-friendly,
  programmed format. Students of microscopic
  anatomy must realize that 7 µm to 10 µm thin
  sections are two-dimensional representations of
  complex three-dimensional structures.
  Understanding of histological organization of
  tissues and organs forms the foundation for
  explaining pathological changes in the organ
  systems.

23
Library of Images (Radiology)

• This website is intended to provide an accurate,
  comprehensive and easily accessible educational
  resource for all its users.
• It is a joint project of the Department of
  Radiology and Information System Department at
  the AKU. The original radiology film library has
  been digitized and catalogued, using the ACR
  (American College of Radiology) system. It will
  be constantly updated, upgraded and expanded on a
  regular basis and all users are invited to
  provide contributions in this respect.

24
Conclusion

• The amount of new knowledge generated in the last
  30 years is greater than that generated during
  the rest of human history. It is because of the
  fact that libraries and learning resource centres
  are helping in creating, storing and retrieving
  knowledge electronically. Hence the e-learning
  society is the destination we all want to reach,
  in this journey we are with EMRO friends. It is
  better to travel than to arrive.