Developing Health Sciences students’ information skills through online self-p...Sarah Gallagher
Sarah Gallagher, Trish Leishman and Richard German - University of Otago Health Sciences Library
StudySmart is a self-paced online course originally designed for second year medical students at the University of Otago by the Health Sciences liaison librarians.(1) The course replaced in-class information skills labs and was piloted with this cohort in 2012.(3) In 2013, with support (2) from the Schools, StudySmart was rolled out to second year Dentistry, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy students. By the end of 2013 StudySmart was accepted as a Terms requirement within the Medical, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy curricula.
The content comprises learning objects developed in-house (4) as well as appropriate Open Educational Resources (OERs) from external sources. It comprises a series of topics, tasks and quizzes which are built within the extant Learning Management Systems (LMS) - Moodle and Blackboard. Academics are able to select topics that meet their students’ needs from a pool that is edited or added to as required.
We will report on qualitative and quantitative evaluation data which demonstrate the students’ level of knowledge and understanding after completing StudySmart, as well as reporting on what the students believed were the most valuable and least valuable aspects of the course. The majority of students who completed the course reported an increase in knowledge of, and understanding about, the topics covered and were positively disposed to the value of the online course.(5, 6) This paper will also report on some of the challenges that we faced and how the course has developed within the programmes for 2014.
This paper builds on a short talk given at Spotlight on Teaching & Learning at the University of Otago on 27th August 2013.
Developing Health Sciences students’ information skills through online self-p...Sarah Gallagher
Sarah Gallagher, Trish Leishman and Richard German - University of Otago Health Sciences Library
StudySmart is a self-paced online course originally designed for second year medical students at the University of Otago by the Health Sciences liaison librarians.(1) The course replaced in-class information skills labs and was piloted with this cohort in 2012.(3) In 2013, with support (2) from the Schools, StudySmart was rolled out to second year Dentistry, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy students. By the end of 2013 StudySmart was accepted as a Terms requirement within the Medical, Pharmacy and Physiotherapy curricula.
The content comprises learning objects developed in-house (4) as well as appropriate Open Educational Resources (OERs) from external sources. It comprises a series of topics, tasks and quizzes which are built within the extant Learning Management Systems (LMS) - Moodle and Blackboard. Academics are able to select topics that meet their students’ needs from a pool that is edited or added to as required.
We will report on qualitative and quantitative evaluation data which demonstrate the students’ level of knowledge and understanding after completing StudySmart, as well as reporting on what the students believed were the most valuable and least valuable aspects of the course. The majority of students who completed the course reported an increase in knowledge of, and understanding about, the topics covered and were positively disposed to the value of the online course.(5, 6) This paper will also report on some of the challenges that we faced and how the course has developed within the programmes for 2014.
This paper builds on a short talk given at Spotlight on Teaching & Learning at the University of Otago on 27th August 2013.