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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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Literature Retrieval through Use of an Interactive, Web-based Tutorial
In order to effectively practice evidence-based medicine, a key component to successful patient outcomes, clinicians must have the fundamental skills to carry out an effective literature search. Teaching students how to properly conduct a literature search is challenging due to logistics and time constraints. Large class sizes make interactive hands-on learning difficult, and constraints within the health sciences curriculum limit the time devoted to literature retrieval training. Most health sciences students learn to search the literature either from observing an experienced person in a large classroom setting or by their own trial and error using abstracting or indexing services or broad Internet search engines. Tara Gesior, and her colleagues in the School of Pharmacy, Shelby Corman, Sue Skledar, Colleen Culley, and Gary Stoehr, have developed Learning the Art of Literature Retrieval through Use of an Interactive, Web-based Tutorial , a self-paced, interactive, Web-based training tutorial consisting of an animated video complemented by an instructional guide for reference. The tutorial will require students to conduct a search while proceeding through the modules of the tutorial. For each module, students will first receive visual instruction of the task to be completed, and then be presented with a scenario to practice the skill demonstrated. After students complete this scenario, they will be presented with an interactive quiz on the concepts learned. In order to progress to the next module, students will be required to answer questions to demonstrate mastery of the previous module. The content of both the video and written material will be adapted from various resources including noninteractive tutorials as well as published literature and faculty expertise. Currently, clinicians rely on Medline ®, a more than five-decades-old bibliographic database developed by the National Library of Medicine containing over 15 million citations with over 500,000 new references added each year. Medline ® can be accessed through several online retrieval systems, each providing numerous search tools that allow the user to expand searches to include a larger set of citations, include subcategories to focus on certain topics, combine multiple searches with Boolean terms, or limit searches to specific citations. When clinical questions require an extensive literature search, many healthcare professionals are overwhelmed with the amount of literature available, the multiple steps involved in a literature search, and a lack of expertise in literature evaluation. The effectiveness of this tutorial will be evaluated through use of interactive quizzes, pre- and posttests, performance on longitudinal assignments, and student feedback. The tutorial will first be incorporated into the Profession of Pharmacy 1 course during the fall 2007 semester. Data will be collected and analyzed from September 2007 through April 2008. The tutorial will then be revised and improved based on the results of the collected data, and will be made available in the fall of 2008 for use in other health sciences programs as well as a continuing education course.
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A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh |
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