PEIR Digital Library: Online Resources and Authoring System

The Pathology Education Instructional Resource (PEIR, http://peir.path.uab.edu) was designed to provide resources for teaching and learning that are user-friendly and dynamic. Our main goal in creating this resource was to facilitate development ofmaterials that would augment the learning environment for our students. Toward this end, the centerpiece of PEIR has been a Web-based collection ofover 30,000 images and 8,000 test question items that faculty can use for developing digital teaching materials and examinations. In its original incarnation, the PEIR was a success with faculty and residents who mainly used the system to find exam questions as well as digital images to add to PowerPoint presentations. However, one main goal ofthe PEIR was not being fully realized-the creation ofonline teaching/learning materials. Other than HTML conversions ofPowerPoint presentations, the PEIR resources were not facilitating faculty creation ofWeb-based resources.