Transcript Monthly Site Usage

CITI HSR Working Group
Meeting
May 22, 2009
Key West, Florida
CITI Software Modifications
CITI Software Team
• Mike Fallon DVM, Ph.D.
– Stephanie Manuel
• Programmer (50% T&E)
– Chris Simmons –
• Programmer and database specialist. (50% T&E)
Programming Focus 2008-2009
• Completed Projects
– A more feature-rich enrollment question option added that incorporates
branched logic.- can reduce number of enrollment Q’s seen by learners
and allows much more sophisticated course customization by learner.
– Added standard “remote gateway” mechanism to allow learners to come
into CITI directly from local networks- provides absolute personnel
records match with downloaded training datasets
– Completed conversion to more sophisticated quiz question
management- multiple subsets of quiz Q’s can be ordered, randomized
as needed.
– Restructured entire CITI website and database fields for compatibility
with int’l character sets (unicode), and cleaned up corrupted
international course text. [99% complete]
Programming Focus 2008-2009
• Complete Projects
– Flexibility of automated training dataset dumps increased to add value to
institutions. [complete]
– More sophisticated institutional cloning tools added to reduce new institution
setup time by CITI staff [complete]
• Ongoing Projects
– Transition from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 database platform to increase site speed
and reduce timeouts June 2009 target
– Improve database backup strategy to prevent more than 1 hour of lost CITI
records in case of catastrophic server failures (note: redundant database servers
already in place to reduce failure risk). June 2009 target
Programming Focus 2008-2009
• Ongoing Projects
– Transfer CITI site to 2 new UM database and 4 new UM web servers to
increase site speed, add capacity, and reduce/eliminate timeouts July
2009
– Add more flexibility in allowing CITI staff to give learners credit for work
done at other institutions July 2009 target
– Reduce complexity of grade book and learner group logic to speed up
learner login and reduce server load July 2009 target
– Incorporate better account security, including a security question and
hashed (hidden) password storage for accounts August 2009 target
Programming Focus 2008-2009
• New Projects in Progress
– Added new admin level (“superadmin”) to provide enhanced
control of multiple international institutions by non-CITI staff .
draft complete, tweaking under way]
– All web pages tweaked to reduce database calls and improve
site speed [initial work complete, additional work ongoing]
– Created account merge tool for combining multiple learner
accounts [initial work complete, tweaks ongoing]
[first
Programming Focus 2008-2009
• Improve database backup strategy to prevent more than 1 hour of
lost CITI records in case of catastrophic server failures (note:
redundant database servers already in place to reduce failure risk).
June 2009 target
Programming Focus 2009 - 2010
• Begin coding for next version of CITI,
– Cold Fusion platform rather than active server pages,
– New features
• More sophisticated translation/authoring tools for international
authors
• Better course image and text management
• Improved CITI developer tools for reviewing courses and quiz
questions.
• Enhanced site speed, increased concurrent learner capacity.
• Greater site customization opportunities for individual institutions.
• Enhanced institutional administrator learner management tools.
– Many requested feature enhancements are being tracked by
Marcos for incorporation into new version Start date October 2009;
completion in 2010-2011
Research Surveys
“Mentoring Experiences”
And
“Who Wants To Be a Human Subject”
MENTORING
• “Survey Says”
– Mentoring is a well recognized benefit to tudent
and faculty.
– Although most “mentors” have had little formal
training; they feel that they are doing a good job.
– Most mentees indicate that their research
advisors are also their mentors.
– Large number of students report that their
institutions do not have mentoring programs.
“So you want to be a human subject”
• Human subjects satisfaction survey.
• Currently awaiting “exempt” designation by UM IRB.
• Asking Survey responders about their willingness to
participate in clinical trials.
– What kind of clinical trial would you participate in and under
what circumstances.
– Working hypothesis: Clinical investigators and IRB
professionals will show high enthusiasm for participating in
clinical trials.
– Parse the data according to role in research.
– >600 survey responses per day.
RCR Meeting Summary
• Very interesting presentations on the use of video
from Jeff Engler
• Update on new course development.
– Jason Borenstein, Sharon Shriver, Ben Fontes
• Discussed ways to have a closer working
relationship with the OpenSeminar program at NC
State.
• Short term changes
– Quiz questions,
– Typos and errors in the content.
– Suggestion to hire an editor.
• Develop a module on Plagiarism