Searching the Pharmacology Literature : An Electronic Tutorial to Meet Curricular Objectives

1) Program Objective : The goal of the online tutorial Searching the Pharmacology Literature is to provide the student with the information and resources necessary to support self-directed learning. 2) Setting : McGill University’s undergraduate medical program is currently undergoing changes in the curriculum. This year, the library offered to partner with a medical illustrator and web designer to replace a lecture with an online tutorial. 3) Participants : Over 180 medical and dental students enrolled in the program were invited to use the tutorial to learn, review concepts, and support their assignment. 4) Program : The tutorial is available via the medical school’s electronic curriculum and freely on the web: http://mmiweb.mmi.mcgill.ca/dev/LorieKLODA/HealthLib-Instruction.htm. The tutorial was launched in the fall term during the pharmacology course. The content is designed to assist the student in locating, retrieving, evaluating, and using information to complete a written assignment and for future research and practice. 5) Results : A feedback questionnaire provides information for the instructional designers about the content and design of the online tutorial. Results from multiple choice questions used on the student’s midterm examination in this and previous years will be compared to assess students’ understanding and synthesis of the objectives. 6) Conclusion : The tutorial may be an effective method of delivering content that meets some of the information literacy objectives for medical education. Improvements and the addition of more interactive components to the tutorial are being considered. The tutorial can easily be customized to be used with different user groups (e.g. nursing students, residents) both at McGill and at other institutions