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Evaluating the appropriateness of electronic information resources for learning
Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA
|January 26, 2016
Summary
Medical students found UpToDate, AccessMedicine, and Wikipedia equally effective for learning, despite UpToDate requiring more mental effort. All resources are appropriate for pre-clerkship education.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education Technology
- Cognitive Science in Learning
- Information Science
Background:
- US medical students increasingly use electronic resources like UpToDate, AccessMedicine, and Wikipedia for pre-clerkship education.
- The appropriateness of these resources, considering information quality and evidence level, remains unclear for early learners.
- This study examines mental effort and its impact on learning from these digital tools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the appropriateness of UpToDate, AccessMedicine, and Wikipedia for first-year medical students' learning.
- To investigate the relationship between mental effort invested and learning outcomes.
- To assess the cognitive load associated with using different electronic information resources.
Main Methods:
- Eighteen first-year medical students interacted with UpToDate, AccessMedicine, and Wikipedia to learn about unstudied diseases.
- Eye movement metrics (fixation duration, count, visit duration, pupillary response) served as psychophysiological indicators of mental effort.
- Learning was assessed via multiple-choice tests, with qualitative data from interviews providing learner perceptions.
Main Results:
- UpToDate use correlated with significantly higher mental effort indicators (eye metrics) compared to AccessMedicine and Wikipedia.
- No significant difference in learning outcomes was observed across the three resources.
- Descriptive analysis indicated similar learning levels irrespective of the electronic resource utilized.
Conclusions:
- All evaluated electronic resources (UpToDate, AccessMedicine, Wikipedia) are appropriate for pre-clerkship medical learning based on outcomes.
- UpToDate alone may be less suitable for first-year students due to higher cognitive demands and potentially unmet information needs.
- Learner mental effort does not appear to be a limiting factor for learning with these resources at this educational level.
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