The goal of BiodefenseEducation.org is to create a biodefense virtual learning community.
The project's hypothesis is that biodefense investigators and trainees can broaden and deepen their knowledge of biodefense-related issues through the use of a continuing education program that will be delivered daily in small granules and integrated into their workflow in the form of biodefense-related news stories.
Over time these news stories will aggregate into an unstructured curriculum of biodefense topics that will closely parallel the structured curriculum of a biodefense graduate program and that engaging in discussions related to these news stories will result in the development of educational collaborative relationships.
Simply, BiodefenseEducation.org is intended to serve as a source of continuing education on biodefense affairs.
What are the components of BiodefenseEducation.org?
BiodefenseEducation.org has three components:
1. News Library - An annotated list of links to biodefense news stories are posted daily after scanning over 100 international news sources. The purpose of this News Library is to serve as a source of daily biodefense education and continuing professional development for biodefense investigators and trainees and to define a biodefense learning curriculum.
2. Learning Collaboratory - Discussions about the biodefense news stories or any other biodefense topic is encouraged. The purpose of this Learning Collaboratory is to bring together online individuals interested in biodefense so they may freely and easily discuss the numerous issues in biodefense research, education, or patient care.
3. Reference Library - The reference library serves as a biodefense knowledge management system, connecting the individual interested in biodefense faced with a question with the right information at the right time so they can make the right decision.
What population is BiodefenseEducation.org intended for?
BiodefenseEducation.org is designed to serve several different populations: the current and next generation of biodefense investigators and trainees, medical personnel, first responders, and other interested parties.
How may I participate in the Learning Collaboratory / Comment on a news story / Start a discussion topic?
See our Learning Collaboratory Instructions
How may I send comments or questions about the site?
See our Comment Form
May I link to BiodefenseEducation.org?
Yes, please feel free to link to BiodefenseEducation.org and to publicize it.
At what time each day is BiodefenseEducation.org updated?
Usually just after midnight, Greenwich Mean Time.
How may I view news stories from previous months and years?
To read news stories from previous months and years, use the calendar in the upper right hand corner of the home page or you may use the Archive.
Why are some of the links to older stories broken?
Many of the newspaper Web sites whose articles BiodefenseEducation.org links to allow free online access to these articles for a limited number of days. After that, the articles are moved to an archive which charges for accessing each article. Whenever possible, BiodefenseEducation.org links to Web sites with versions of these articles which remain freely available indefinitely, such as BBC News. Therefore, in order to read all the stories BiodefenseEducation.org links to, you will have to visit BiodefenseEducation.org on a regular basis, before the newspapers move their articles to their archives.
How may I try to find some of these older stories with broken links?
You have three options:
1. Go to the Internet Archive and type the Web address (URL) of the article into its WayBack Machine search engine and see if it has an archived copy.
2. Go to Google and type the title of the article, in quotes, into its Web search engine. Someone may have placed a copy of the original article onto their personal Web site.
3. Finally, go to the newspaper's Web site and search through its archive. You must likely will have to pay to retrieve the article.
Do you have a flyer that I can duplicate and use to help publicise the site?
Yes, an online version of our flyer can be found: here
Do you have a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed?
Yes, our RSS feed may be found at:
http://www.biodefenseeducation.org/xml/rss.xml
Who curates BiodefenseEducation.org?
BiodefenseEducation.org is curated by Donna M. D'Alessandro, MD and Michael P. D'Alessandro, MD.
Donna D'Alessandro received her M.D. from Wayne State University School of Medicine, completed a residency in Pediatrics at the Children's Memorial Hospital / Northwestern University, and completed a fellowship in General Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston / Harvard Medical School. She is currently a Pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa.
Michael D'Alessandro received an M.D. from Wayne State University School of Medicine, completed a residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Iowa, and completed a fellowship in Pediatric Radiology at Children's Hospital Boston / Harvard Medical School. He is currently a Pediatric Radiologist and Professor of Radiology at the University of Iowa.
The Drs. D'Alessandros' research is in the field of digital libraries and educational informatics. They are both co-investigators on The University of Iowa's Planning Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases.
In addition, Mary J.C. Hendrix, Ph.D., serves as a consultant to BiodefenseEducation.org. Dr. Hendrix is the President and Scientific Director of the Children's Memorial Research Center, and is a Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Have you published any papers on BiodefenseEducation.org?
Yes. The April 2005 issue of D-Lib Magazine contains our article, Initial Experiences in Developing a Chronologically Organized Digital Library for Continuing Education in Biodefense.
Our summative evaluation of BiodefenseEducation.org may be found here: D'Alessandro DM, D'Alessandro MP. Delivering Biodefense Continuing Education to Military Medical Providers by Allowing a Biodefense Educational Curriculum to Unfold in Practice. Military Medicine 2007; 172(12): 1293-1299.
How many people use BiodefenseEducation.org?
2004 - 18,986 pages read (page hits) from 8,255 users (visitors). There were 27 links to the home page.
2005 - 32,146 pages read (page hits) from 14,895 users (visitors). There were 84 links to the home page.
2006 - 34,250 pages read (page hits) from 17,735 users (visitors).
2007 - 21,422 pages read (page hits) from 11,755 users (visitors).
Click here to see our overall statistics.
Click here to see daily statistics.
Sum it all up?
By reading BiodefenseEducation.org regularly, and participating in its discussions, individuals will be taking part in informal, situated learning that will lead to continuing education on biodefense affairs.
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