Powerpoint template for scientific posters Swarthmore College

1
Too many medical students and too little time
Transitioning instruction to an online,
asynchronous format
Kristina Appelt, MSIS and Kimberly Pendell,
MSISUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, Library
of the Health Sciences

Introduction The Information Services Department
of the Library of the Health Sciences has a long
tradition of collaboration with UICs College of
Medicine. Currently, we teach all medical
students in their first (M1), second (M2), and
third (M3) years. We recognize the need for a
cohesive curricular sequence that eliminates
instructional redundancy. Students attend
face-to-face library instruction sessions in both
the M1 and M2 years, learning library resources
and advanced PubMed searching respectively.
Previously, clinical resource tools were
demonstrated to M3 students either in a large
auditorium or small groups within the library.
Feedback from students on the large lecture
format was that it was largely ineffective. The
small group format was more effective, but due to
scheduling, some students did not receive
instruction until the end of their clinical
rotations. In 2006, the Information Services
Department transitioned to an online tutorial for
M3 students. The M3 tutorial, Clinical Tools for
Information at the Point of Care, identifies a
variety of electronic resources for answering
therapy, diagnosis, drug information, and finding
credible health information to give patients.
Practice ScenarioStudents were required to
select one of the rotation practice scenarios,
and create a patient care plan using their
information seeking skills. We then provided
written feedback on each student's response. It
became more evident the second year of offering
the class online that there are flaws to the
practice scenario that need to be addressed. The
practice scenario needs clearer instructions, the
ability to tell which practice scenario the
student chose, and a mechanism that requires the
student to go back into Blackboard to view our
feedback.

• Assessment
• Feedback from past evaluations was inconsistent
  because of changing format of the class and how
  assessment was collected. It is difficult to make
  direct comparisons between the three formats
  offered. However, feedback from past sessions did
  influence the goals and objectives of the online
  tutorial. Assessment of the new online course
  included
• an active learning exercise (practice scenario)
  to assess whether the students could incorporate
  content and resources
• tutorial evaluation to assess how students
  preferred learning
• gathered statistics from Blackboard to
  understand students' learning behaviors

The content of the tutorial modules is guided by
a single clinical scenario, designed to be a
cohesive diagnosis and treatment plan. We
recommended that students complete the
introduction first, followed by diagnosis,
therapy, drug information, and patient education
modules. The learning modules are divided into
four main components an introduction, the
patient profile and scenario, preliminary
questions on information seeking skills and
preferences, and video demonstration of selected
clinical tools. Students are then required to
select a practice scenario and apply their
information seeking skills using the clinical
tools of their choice to develop a patient care
plan, including diagnosis, therapy, drug therapy
(if applicable), and patient education. Since
ECPP takes place prior to students beginning one
of six clinical rotations in either Family
Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, or Surgery,
we developed a unique patient scenario relevant
to each rotation.
Tutorial Evaluation Within the Blackboard
platform, we created a separate tutorial
evaluation which included four questions. The
questions focused on usability interest of
content, and learning preferences. In the second
year of offering the course online, we included a
fifth question for open comments. Though the
original four questions provided evidence of the
students preference for learning the material
online, the open comments from the students have
provided invaluable feedback, both positive and
negative.
Student Learning BehaviorsBlackboard provides
course statistics that allow us to look deeper
into the learning behaviors of our students. One
interesting trend that emerged was the date and
time students completed the tutorial. In both
years, the majority of the students completed the
course during a Sunday and/or in the evening
hours. These statistics are another indicator
that students prefer working through the tutorial
on their own time, and the online format is
successful in allowing flexibility.
Development The opportunity to effectively
incorporate online instruction arose as part of
the newly revised two-week required course
entitled Essentials of Clinical Practice
Professionalism (ECPP). ECPP includes one week
of lectures and instruction at the beginning of
the M3 year, before the students begin a series
of six clinical clerkships. With the support of
the new ECPP coordinators, we began building the
curriculum for effectively using clinical tools
at the point of care.
Table 3. Student learning preference
Conclusions As a department, we strive to make
instruction meaningful for the students. Using
Blackboard and Camtasia, we were able to develop
more effective instruction as well as provide a
more convenient format for busy medical
students. Just like in-person instruction, an
online tutorial needs continual revision and
improvement. Clinical Tools for Information at
the Point of Care was revised this year to
account for various changes in clinical tool
interfaces and features next year, we plan a
extensive revision of the tutorial curriculum,
inspired by student feedback.
Figure 2. Practice Scenario assignment
To develop the tutorial, we explored options such
as building an independent web site or using
Blackboard, the course management software
available from the University. Creating an
interactive tutorial was very important, as was
the ability to confirm the participation of
students and provide students with feedback.
Considering these factors, we felt that
Blackboard was the best option. The tutorial
videos developed in Camtasia include a video tour
of selected clinical tools, accompanied by an
audio track and PowerPoint slides describing the
various features, strengths and weaknesses of the
tools. We established a workflow process for
video creation, including written scripts and
standards for Camtasia production.
Table 1. Tutorial access by day of the week
Figure 3. Make sure legends have enough detail to
fully explain to the viewer what the results are.
Note that for posters it is good to put some
Materials and methods information within the
figure legends or onto the figures themselvesit
allows the Mm section to be shorter, and gives
viewer a sense of the experiment(s) even if they
have skipped directly to figures. Dont be
tempted to reduce font size in figure legends,
axes labels, etc.your viewers are probably most
interested in reading your figures and legends!
For further information Wallis, L., Appelt, K.
M., Pendell, K. D., Pappas, C. (in press). Giving
medical students what they want Online
instruction at 1100 p.m. In A. L. Daugherty M.
F. Russo (Eds.), Information Literacy Programs in
the Digital Age Educating College and University
Students Online. Chicago, IL Association of
College and Research Libraries. Acknowledgments
This project was developed with extensive
contributions from Lisa Wallis and Cleo Pappas.
Table 2. Tutorial access by time of day
Figure 1. Learning Module example