A Web-based interactive training for the selfacquisition of information retrieval skills targeting the PBL students.

Chalon P, Pasleau F. A Web-based interactive training for the self acquisition of information retrieval skills targeting the PBL students. Medizin - Bibliothek - Information. 2003;3(1):23-27. [Journal article]

OBJECTIVE: To provide the medical students involved in Problem-Based Learning (PBL) with a remotely accessible training tool for the self acquisition of information retrieval skills.

CONTENT: Access to the training tool is made trough a portal Web site. The tool is initiated with a clinical case. A selection of relevant electronic resources such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias, textbooks, and bibliographical databases is proposed. Each resource comes with search examples achieved by librarians concerning the subject of the clinical case. Each step of the strategy is described, commented and illustrated with a screen copy of the original resource. To reinforce the realism, users are invited to click on the appropriate areas of the screen copy to progress in the search. A catalogue is created with the documents retrieved from the different resources. The catalogue is searchable independently and provides links to full-text when available. The technical support for the training tool consists of a set of related databases (FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Inc., USA). Data concerning the clinical case, including medical imaging, is contained in a first database. Description of – and links to resources are collected in a second database as well as basic user instructions. For every search example in a specific resource, a database is created from a template, containing all the searched terms and screen copies necessary to provide an interactive demonstration. The catalogue of documents constitutes the last database. The prototype must now be presented to teachers and students and evaluated for quality, performance and user-friendliness. Results will help us to improve the design and content of the training tool.