BackgroundStandardizing the experiences of medical students in a community preceptorship where clinical sites vary by geography and discipline can be challenging. Computer-assisted learning is prevalent in medical education and can help standardize experiences, but often is not used to its fullest advantage. A blended learning curriculum combining web-based modules with face-to-face learning can ensure students obtain core curricular principles.MethodsThis course was developed and used at The Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and its associated preceptorship sites in the greater Cleveland area. Leaders of a two-year elective continuity experience at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine used adult learning principles to develop four interactive online modules presenting basics of office practice, difficult patient interviews, common primary care diagnoses, and disease prevention. They can be viewed at . Students completed surveys rating the content and technical performance of each module and completed a Generalist OSCE exam at the end of the course.ResultsParticipating students rated all aspects of the course highly; particularly those related to charting and direct patient care. Additionally, they scored very well on the Generalist OSCE exam.ConclusionStudents found the web-based modules to be valuable and to enhance their clinical learning. The blended learning model is a useful tool in designing web-based curriculum for enhancing the clinical curriculum of medical students.
A new process of combining existing wind modelling software has been presented, which is competitive with existing processes of wind modelling in terms of accuracy and efficiency. When compared to real wind speed data, the final rms error in the prediction of average wind speed was around 8%. Further, a model for developing a cost-of-energy atlas is also presented, based on customized GIS tools. Both of these methods can be used with additional land data to quickly identify key sites for wind power development and to ensure rational placement of wind monitoring towers. Indeed, the cost of assessing the wind potential of a large area of land may be less than the cost of one misplaced wind monitoring tower.
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