Internet for teaching and learning introductory health informatics

Internet resources seem attractive for teaching and learning. But are they usable and useful in their present form? We explored Internet, in particular its World Wide Web (WWW) resources, in a course on "Medical Methodology" (HINF270) for students of health information science. This course offers a systematic overview of the methodological principles of clinical care. Its broad scope and low depth makes this course a reasonable model to explore the limits of WWW resources. During the course, students wrote summaries of individual lectures. After critiquing and appropriate corrections, the texts were edited with Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) and augmented with links to WWW resources. Grading based on the papers, on their improvements through HTML and WWW, and on the provision of information on the search experience were incentives to use WWW. A formal questionnaire, administered on-line on a voluntary basis, concluded the investigation. Results show: 1) Even under considerable pressure to use WWW, libraries remain the reference source of choice for research; 2) Internet provides entertainment appeal even though practical utility is currently limited; 3) Technological proficiency with HTML and search engines is perceived as an asset; 4) Varying availability of Internet resources, uncertain and varying quality of sources, and limited specificity of research results are the major disadvantages of WWW. The teaching implications of these findings are discussed.