Systematic assessment of World Wide Web materials for medical education: online, cooperative peer review

: To develop a generic methodology for the online assessment of medical education materials available on the World Wide Web and to implement it for pilot subject areas.

An online questionnaire was developed, based on an existing scheme for computer-based learning material. It was extended to involve five stages, covering general suitability, local suitability, the user interface, educational style, and a general review. It is available on the Web, so expert reviewers may be recruited from outside the home institution. The methodology was piloted in three subjects areas--clinical chemistry, radiology, and medical physics--concentrating initially on undergraduate teaching.

The contents of completed questionnaires were stored in an offline database. Selected fields, likely to be of use to students and educators searching for material, were input into an online database.

The online assessment was used successfully in clinical chemistry and medical physics but less well in radiology. Fewer resources were found to fit local needs than expected.

The methodology was found to work well for topics where teaching is highly structured and formal and is potentially applicable in other such disciplines. The approach produces more structured and applicable lists of resources than can be obtained from search engines.