Charles E Branch. E-mail: branch@mail.auburn.edu

If you want to read some boring stuff about me, click my CV. In the old days I used to be an engineer, and later a physiologist.  Lately I have become mainly a computer nerd.  When I'm not sitting in front of a computer, I am sometimes  messing with Hummingbirds or Bluebirds

Fun used to be working with artificial organs, animal models of cardiac arrhythmias, and various electro-mechanical gadgets. More recently my interests have moved towards the use of multimedia for teaching--especially the use of interactive video programs to provide realistic simulations of real-world student laboratory experiences. These tools include VideoDisc, (a Cardiovascular Laboratory), Digital Video, (AVI and MPEG), and use of the Internet (WWW) for efficient presentation of distance learning applications. You can check on some other folks interested in similar applications at the CONVINCE Consortium.   My other hat is responsibility for the college's Computer Group, including computer labs, classrooms, the hospital database, and computing services.

Here is a brief description of some of our projects.  As an example you may access a description and demo of A Cardiovascular Laboratory, a videodisc simulation of laboratories traditionally conducted in health sciences education. The demo includes a few images and MPEG video clips from the videodisc program.  It also describes a little about our current work on a CD ROM version of the program using AVI and MPEG digital video clips, and the WWW version of the cardiac cycle animation. You may also check out some samples of MPEG and AVI Motion Video Tests. NOTE: The motion video files and some of the images are quite large. These files are not intended for on-line instructional use.