Computer-Supported Independent Study in the Basic Medical Sciences

Independent study at The Ohio State University College of Medicine had its beginnings approximately fifteen years ago in the Department of Anatomy largely due to the energy and interest of Professor Grant O. Graves. Successful programs in that department were followed by experimental approaches in this direction by some members of the Department of Physiological Chemistry, who employed biochemistry discussion groups instead of a traditional lecture program to cover first-year medical biochemistry. Both of these experiments retained a significant lock-step feature with respect to the total elapsed time allowable to each student. This time constant was forced on the students in these programs due to the necessity of remaining in step with other disciplines which continued to be presented by the traditional lecture mode. Still, these programs led to several valuable conclusions.