Developing medical students’ information skills through online self-paced learning

Abstract

StudySmart is an online course designed for second year medical students at the University of Otago. This course was designed to replace a two hour library and information skills lab, and comprises a series of topics, tasks and quizzes. The course was built within the existing learning management system (LMS), Moodle. The content was made up of resources developed in-house as well as appropriate OERs from external sources. The online course was run as a pilot in 2012 and has involved three stages of evaluation: evaluative questions in the topic quizzes; post course reflective evaluation; and a focus group session. This poster presents the findings from the implementation and evaluation of this self-directed online course. The online course was designed to support the development of information skills in order to assist students with a significant summative assessment. The majority of students who completed the course reported a gain in knowledge and understanding about the topics covered, and reported that aspects of the course enhanced their ability to complete their assessment.