Studying health information from a distance: refining an e-learning case study in the crucible of student evaluation

Purpose: To present a formative evaluation of the impact of a multimedia case study as a component of a masters course in health informatics delivered by distance learning. Setting/Participants/Resources: First and second year health informatics students undertaking four core modules of a masters programme at the University of Sheffield. Methodology: Individual qualitative user surveys and interviews. Results/Outcomes: Formative evaluation has played a significant role in refining the case study through its text‐based, intermediate and CD‐ROM based stages. Feedback from students has resulted in clarification of case study tasks, clearer definition of teaching roles and a revised approach to assessment. At the same time it has highlighted the importance of ongoing revision and maintenance in keeping the scenarios realistic and current. Discussion/Conclusion: The multimedia case study has met many of its original aims in providing greater cohesion for core modules and encouraging greater levels of interaction and multidisciplinary collaboration.     

SCISTER act: delivering training in information skills for social-care professionals

PURPOSE: To develop and evaluate a programme of information skills training for social-care practitioners and health-care librarians. SETTING: Two one-day training courses run separately for 13 social-care practitioners and 10 health-care librarians in the Trent geographic region within Northern England. METHODOLOGY: Qualitative and quantitative feedback collected through questionnaires supplemented by participant observation. RESULTS: While generally feedback was favourable, the courses were overly ambitious. More training sessions of shorter duration would offer participants opportunities to practise and use the skills they have acquired. Social-care practitioners responded more positively to skills associated with appraising qualitative research than with randomised controlled trials. Librarians appreciated the opportunity to learn about unfamiliar social-care resources. Both practitioners and health-care librarians reported that they acquired skills to support evidence-based social care as a result of the training intervention. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Involvement of a multi-disciplinary team and support from a social-care information provider maximized the impact of this experimental training intervention.     

Do swans really eat fudgesicles? (the picture book and child drama)

The city had never before and has never since witnessed such a celebration as that which greeted the adventurers on their return from the battle with Humbaba. A holiday was declared. All work ceased. Feasts were laid out everywhere, and the people went up and down the streets carrying standards and bright banners. The young and the old gathered in the family house and sat crosslegged while the two heroes told the story repeating it again and again and answering all the questions that were asked. Singers immediately made up long songs about the adventure; dancers acted it out; and scribes laboriously engraved it on stone, or pressed the words and letters into tablets of wet clay. Runners carried the clay tablets from city to city...Robert Barton and David Booth are respectively program consultant for the arts, Ministry of Education, Province of Ontario and drama consultant for the Borough of York in Metropolitan Tornoto. They are coauthors ofNobody in the Cast, a drama text for students;Film, a student handbook on the cinema and, soon to be publishedColours, an imaginative look at literature and language for 8–12 year olds.     

Perceptions of the physical environment,stage of change for physical activity,and walking among Australian adults

Data for this study were from a population survey of 1,200 adults ages 40-60 years, sampled from the Illawarra region of New South Wales. Questionnaire items on perceptions of the environment were factor analyzed into: Aesthetic Environment and Practical Environment. For both factors, those in the Contemplation stage had more negative views of the environment than those in Maintenance. Those who walked for 0-20 min/week held more negative perceptions of their environment than those who walked for 21-120 min/week and those who walked for > 120 min/week. The health promotion implications of these findings are that environments perceived as attractive and as providing convenient access to services and facilities may influence motivational readiness for physical activity and time spent walking.