Course content was delivered using the following tools: printed notesets, PowerPoint(TM) slide sets, and a World-Wide Web (WWW) site for the course. Notesets, designed in outline form, contained the instructor’s lecture notes and were provided at the beginning of the course in order to obviate excessive note-taking and enhance classroom discussion during lectures. The slide sets were used in the lectures and were available over the local area network (LAN) from PC and Macintosh(TM) workstations in the student computer lab.

The WWW site contained: 1) current assignments, 2) a course calendar, 3) course grades, 4) links to other veterinary and immunology web sites, 5) lists of required readings, and, 6) course-specific topics and objectives. The WWW site was developed using HTML 2.0 standards and delivered from an SGI server. Site security was achieved by login/password and domain-restricted access. This implementation allowed for tracking of student access to the site through user logs maintained on the server. Students submitted assignments using both email and CGI-based forms written in Perl scripts.

During the first half of the course, students were encouraged to use email and the WWW resources. Incentives for these efforts included the publication of learning objectives and sample test questions exclusively on the WWW site. All out-of-class student-instructor communications were initiated by an email appointment system. Trained computer laboratory assistants were available for student support. This period facilitated acclimatization for students with limited computer skills or experience.

During the second half of the course, clinical and research problems were delivered to the students via the WWW site. We used a sequential delivery system to encourage the use of idealized problem-solving strategies which should be applicable to authentic clinical immunology cases. Information related to clinical case simulations was provided incrementally to the students. Initial WWW pages provided the patient’s condition at presentation, signalment, and limited owner-derived information. Students were asked to generate questions to elicit full patient histories, and to request initial laboratory tests. Subsequent pages contained results from appropriate and confounding laboratory tests, and students were then required to develop rule-outs and to request additional diagnostic procedures. Eventually, sufficient information was provided to allow for a definitive diagnosis, allowing students to develop a treatment management plan.

Research questions underscoring the basic science principles represented in the clinical problems were then assigned using the same delivery format. Students were expected to solve these questions using diverse information resources, including those found on the WWW. Closure of both clinical and research problem assignments was reached via classroom discussion.

Responses to evaluation questionnaires given at the end of the course indicated that students felt access to course material via computer was appropriate and worthwhile. Comments from students regarding Internet applications for course work indicated that the primary concerns or difficulties related to computer availability and server reliability. Students were very receptive to the problem-solving format and many would have preferred this format earlier in the semester. Results from this study suggest that use of a wide variety of computer applications, including email, Internet, and LAN applications, can be effectively used to enhance basic science education in the professional curriculum.