NeuroQuiz: A Pair of Programs for Creating and Running Neuroanatomy Quizzes
1
Kubie
2
Conyers
J.L
and G. P.
1. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and 2. Educational Computing & Technology
S.U.N.Y. Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Introduction
QuizRunner - A Desktop Application
Content Creation
QuizMaker
An author starts with a folder of images. QuizMaker creates a Project folder (in this case “Coronal 1-4", fig. 4 below) and copies the pictures
into the images folder within (fig. 5). Thumbnails of the images appear in the master window (fig. 1). These can be re-arranged and named. Double clicking on a thumbnail opens the editing window for the image. This can be toggled between two views: the structure list (fig. 2) and the
structure editor (fig. 3). Creating a structure polygon is similar to most illustration programs. Polygons can be edited or deleted. QuizMaker can
also edit the contents of a completed project folder.
Quiz Program &
Resources Folder
The resources folder contains all
available projects. Figure lower
right shows project selection.
Mode 1: Interactive Atlas
Two-way interactive atlas is the standard view.
Navigation to images in a project is done here.
Selecting quizzes is done via the “mode” button.
Mode 2: “Find It” Quiz
In the “Find it” Quiz a structure name is displayed
(or spoken) and the student tries to click on the
structure. Quiz ends when all items are identified.
The structure is outlined and student has to type in the
name. Potential matches are displayed from the set of names
on the page. Student can select the number of letters typed
before matches are displayed. More letters = harder.
Features
At our institution we have made use of interactive Atlas/Quiz software since the
early 1990s. Initially termed “Anatomac” this homegrown software has been popular and effective in a wide variety of courses.
Recently, however, this software has shown its age. Among the problems:
1. Platform dependence. The original programs were mac-specific.
2. Authoring. It had always been difficult to create the interactive atlases.
As time passed the authoring tools became decrepit and, finally, broken.
3. Innovation. Since the original development environment ceased to
exist, innovation was impossible.
Over the past 10 years we have made two moderately successful attempts to
export the older projects to new environments. One was implemented in java and
worked over the web. The second was implemented in RunTime Revolution. Each
of these worked, but had drawbacks. For each we implemented a method of
exporting old projects, but no effective method of editing old projects or making
new ones.
Project Organization
A project is not a single document, but a
folder. This folder contains an images folder and a main.txt file. The text file contains a list of the images to use, the
names of structures on an image and the
coordinates of the polygon vertices that
define each structure. If two polygons
have the same name they will be treated
as the same structure.
Our second goal was to create a new Interactive Atlas/Quiz program. The goal was to be able to make modern, desktop applications for
macintosh and windows computers that could work with the output of the
authoring program. Our goal was to be able to accommodate larger images that
the original programs and to add several new features that we thought would be
difficult in other environments. As we worked on the QuizzRunner program ideas
for new features grew. Among the new features are:
1. The ability to “speak” structure names or descriptive text. The student can
turn this feature on or off. This features uses the native text-to-speech of
the macintosh and windows platforms. Miss-spoken words are corrected
with a lookup table.
2. Two kinds of self test: “find the structure” and “name the structure”.
“Name the structure is new and has proven very popular.
3. Levels. Structures can be categorized as “basic” or “advanced” by the
author. The student can then learn and test at either the basic or advanced
level.
4. Categories. In one atlas (Pal Weigert) there are many structures per page
and we have found that students don’t know where to start. In a categorized quiz, the author assigns one or more categories to each structure.
The student then chooses whatever categories he/she wants in review or
self-test modes.
Our final goal was to create new content. Examples of several completed
and ongoing projects are listed to the right.
Note. Programming was done in REALbasic. Since REALBasic creates crossplatform programs, versions of both the Authoring Software and QuizzRunner are
made for Macintosh (universal binary) and Windows.
Speech permeates
many areas of the
program. A user
can select to have
structure names
spoken, to have
verbal queries during quizzes and to
have extended text
comments spoken.
Project Folder
Fig. 6
Fig. 5
Levels and Categories
Basic and Advanced in the
Sheep Brain Atlas
Text-to-speech is used. Misspronunciations are corrected by a usergenerated look-up table. So, for example, if the computer’s text to speech
would pronounce “putamen” as “putt
amin”, the nonsense word “ putaymen”
is substituted.
Fig. 4
“Levels” and “Categories”
rely on an author-generated
text file where each structure is assigned to a level or
to categories. During program execution only the
structures that match the
currently selected criteria
are displayed. The program
responds instantaneously to
any change in “levels” or
“categories”.
These are core features of
the sheep brain atlas and the
Pal-Weigert atlas.
Extended Text
The Pal Weigert Atlas lets
users toggle categories
Some projects use
extensive descriptions on each page.
These are supported with separate
windows. The user
can have the text
spoken or repeated
in paragraph segments. Pronunciation correction
uses the look-up
table described to
the left.
In this example, clicking “somatosensory” adds four
structures.
Projects:
There were, therefore, three goals to this project.
Our first goal was to re-create a content-creation (authoring)
program. The general target was to be very simple: An author would start with
a set of images and, in a draw-like environment, create a set of polygons with
names associated with each image. Our goal was to make the output as simple
and generic as possible, and compatible with the java project. We also wanted to
give the authoring program the ability to edit older projects as well as create new
ones.
Speech
Fig. 3
Fig. 2
Fig. 1
Mode 3: “Name It” Quiz
MRI Atlas
Human Brain
Sheep Brain
Over the past year we
have created an extensive set of projects
using human brain
images. These include
coronal and horizontal
brain sections, several
dissections and surface
views.
The sheep brain atlas is
aimed at high school or
college neuroanatomy
labs. We are in the process of writing an
accompanying manual.
We found it difficult to
get the right level. It
should not be too
intimidating on first
exposure, but should
contain important
structures. The ability
for a student to select
basic or advanced levels should avoid this
problem.
The MRI material used
images from an older
project done with Drs.
Diana Dow-Edwards and
Jaya Nath several years
ago.
These have been used
in two neuroanatomy
courses. Reactions
were extremely positive.
These received the
highest student evaluations that we have
experienced.
Radiology Atlases
The set of radiology atlases
were developed by Dr. Steven Ostrow twelve years
ago. These sets (projects)
include: abdomen, upper
extremity, lower extremity,
thorax, pelvis and headand-neck. Each set has
about 20 images and each
image has extensive text.
Porting to QuizRunner was
easy and made use of the
earlier polygons.
The extended text window
(left) is used for these
projects.
Pal Weigert Atlas
The “categories” feature was
designed for the Pal Weigert
atlas. We had found that students avoided studying Pal
Weigert material until all
pathways had been taught.
This was because, in a printed
or electronic atlas, it was difficult or impossible for a student determine what they
should know until they were
exposed to everything.
The categories feature was
designed to permit incremental learning. The “active categories” window is for category selection. Update is
instantaneous.
Use & Contact Info
QuizMaker, QuizRunner and most projects can be downloaded from:
http://ect.downstate.edu/courseware/neuroscience/
Use and distribution of these programs for non-profit, educational purposes is free
Contact either author for more information:
jkubie@downstate.edu
greg.conyers@downstate.edu
(thanks to Brett Laurance at Downstate for help with setting up the website)