Interactive Tele-Education Initiative

The University of Illinois at Chicago-
West Virginia University Ophthalmic Pathology Partnership

Beginning in October, 1996, interactive teaching session originating in Iowa City, IA, were conducted with residents in ophthalmology in Morgantown, West Virginia, approximately 1000 miles away. This was the first of 20 such two-way interactive sessions to be held over the 1996-1997 academic year.

This intiative is now its fourth academic year and was awarded first place as the Best Distance Learning Program in Higher Education by the US Distance Learning Association (USDLA) at Telecon XVIII in Anaheim, CA, October, 1998!

Click over the West Virginia University Logo or here for the schedule of session for the 1999-2000 Academic year.

West Virginia University Ophthalmology Residents now participate in all aspects of ophthalmic pathology - from grossing specimen to signout - even though they are separated geographically from our laboratory by about 1000 miles.

The West Virginia-Iowa Collaboration takes a multipronged approach to interactive medical education:

This is a view through the monitor that Dr. Folberg uses during his teaching sessions. He is talking to Ophthalmology Residents in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Dr. John Linberg, Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, is seated in the rear at the left of the screen. The television feed out to Morgantown, West Virginia, is featured in the inset at the lower right. Students in West Virginia hear Dr. Folberg (and he hears them) and repond to questions. The technology is transparent to all who are involved. One might almost imagine that teacher and students are not separated by any geographic distance!