Educational Blogs Research Articles

Blog for schoolchildren about people with disabilities: evaluation of learning

Objective: to evaluate schoolchildren´s knowledge before and after educational intervention using an educational blog about the person with disability. Methods: quantitative study with 74 students participating. Knowledge test was applied. Mean and standard deviation of ages was calculated. McNemar test was used comparing pretest and posttest and Wilcoxon test compared means and medians. Results: after the blog, there was increase of hits in the posttest. Statistical significance was observed in the variables: public and private school (p=0.001); female and male (p=0.001); groups of 13 to 14 years old (p=0.001) and 15 to 18 years old (p=0.001). Issues related to visual and auditory impairmentand history and citizenship were less successful in the pretest than the posttest (p=0.001). Questions about visual and auditory impairment, history and citizenship (p=0.001) improved the proportion of correct answers after the intervention. Conclusion: educational blog application promoted increased knowledge of schoolchildren about the person with a disability.

Blog educativo bioquímicativa: uma forma de vivenciar a educação em bioquímica e sua relação com a fisiopatologia

O projeto de extensão BioquímicAtiva surgiu com o intuito de utilizar a internet como um meio de ensino da bioquímica, dada a dificuldade que os alunos comumente relatam sobre a compreensão dessa disciplina e sua associação com a prática profissional. Por esta razão, o presente trabalho avaliou a eficiência de um blog educativo sobre bioquímica, elaborado a partir de um post de fácil linguagem, didático e interativo, utilizando-se da interdisciplinaridade com a fisiopatologia. Toda a criação do blog e de seu conteúdo foi executada pelos integrantes do projeto, os quais se basearam na literatura científica para criação do post ‘’Você sabe o que é Esteatose hepática alcoólica?’’. Para avaliação do blog considerou-se parâmetros de visão geral e informações demográficas, gerados pelo Google Analytics. O conteúdo postado foi avaliado pela enquete “O que você achou deste conteúdo?”, disponível ao final do post para votação. O blog foi avaliado por quinze dias, contados a partir da data de sua divulgação, com registro total de 1236 visualizações nesse período, incluindo usuários de diversas cidades brasileiras e alguns países. Foram notificados 26 votos, sendo 25 para a opção “Excelente” (96,15%), um para “Bom” (3,84%) e nenhum voto para “indiferente”. Conclui-se que o projeto elaborado foi positivo, o que demonstra a importância do uso de novos métodos de ensino e tecnologias que possam contribuir para a formação e interesse pela bioquímica, bem como estimular seu uso para outros cursos de graduação, melhorando assim o processo de ensino e aprendizagem dos acadêmicos.

Blog and Podcast Watch: Orthopedic Emergencies.

IntroductionThe WestJEM Blog and Podcast Watch presents high quality open-access educational blogs and podcasts in emergency medicine (EM) based on the ongoing ALiEM Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) and AIR-Professional series. Both series critically appraise resources using an objective scoring rubric. This installment of the Blog and Podcast Watch highlights the topic of orthopedic emergencies from the AIR series.MethodsThe AIR series is a continuously building curriculum that follows the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) annual testing schedule. For each module, relevant content is collected from the top 50 Social Media Index sites published within the previous 12 months, and scored by eight AIR board members using five equally weighted measurement outcomes: Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) score, accuracy, educational utility, evidence based, and references. Resources scoring ≥30 out of 35 available points receive an AIR label. Resources scoring 27–29 receive an honorable mention label, if the executive board agrees that the post is accurate and educationally valuable.ResultsA total of 87 blog posts and podcasts were evaluated. Key educational pearls from the three AIR posts and the 14 honorable mentions are summarized.ConclusionThe WestJEM Blog and Podcast Watch series is based on the AIR and AIR-Pro series, which attempts to identify high quality educational content on open-access blogs and podcasts. This series provides an expert-based, post-publication curation of educational social media content for EM clinicians with this installment focusing on orthopedic emergencies.

Individual Gestalt Is Unreliable for the Evaluation of Quality in Medical Education Blogs: A METRIQ Study

Open educational resources such as blogs are increasingly used for medical education. Gestalt is generally the evaluation method used for these resources; however, little information has been published on it. We aim to evaluate the reliability of gestalt in the assessment of emergency medicine blogs. We identified 60 English-language emergency medicine Web sites that posted clinically oriented blogs between January 1, 2016, and February 24, 2016. Ten Web sites were selected with a random-number generator. Medical students, emergency medicine residents, and emergency medicine attending physicians evaluated the 2 most recent clinical blog posts from each site for quality, using a 7-point Likert scale. The mean gestalt scores of each blog post were compared between groups with Pearson's correlations. Single and average measure intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated within groups. A generalizability study evaluated variance within gestalt and a decision study calculated the number of raters required to reliably (>0.8) estimate quality. One hundred twenty-one medical students, 88 residents, and 100 attending physicians (93.6% of enrolled participants) evaluated all 20 blog posts. Single-measure intraclass correlation coefficients within groups were fair to poor (0.36 to 0.40). Average-measure intraclass correlation coefficients were more reliable (0.811 to 0.840). Mean gestalt ratings by attending physicians correlated strongly with those by medical students (r=0.92) and residents (r=0.99). The generalizability coefficient was 0.91 for the complete data set. The decision study found that 42 gestalt ratings were required to reliably evaluate quality (>0.8). The mean gestalt quality ratings of blog posts between medical students, residents, and attending physicians correlate strongly, but individual ratings are unreliable. With sufficient raters, mean gestalt ratings provide a community standard for assessment.

Beyond students’ perceptions: investigating learning presence in an educational blogging community

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an integrated framework for designing and investigating students’ engagement patterns and learning presence in educational blogs. The framework was grounded on the ideas of self-directed and reflective learning, and was applied to analyse students’ blogging activities in the context of an undergraduate course.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed research framework was organized along three dimensions: content artefacts, blogging processes and community building. With regard to the methodological tools used, this study integrates content analysis of students’ posts using the framework of community of inquiry, the representation of learning mapping and social network analysis methods.FindingsThe results have revealed important information about the different ways of students’ engagement and learning presence within the blogging groups, the contribution and the influence each student had, as well as the structure and the cohesion of the learning community developed around the blogging project.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study are limited by the blended course features, the specific sample and the context of implementation. Future research needs to consider and analyse students’ lurking or invisible presence in educational blogging communities.Practical implicationsThis study has yielded promising results with regard to the design of educational blogs in higher education that aim to enhance students’ engagement, reflection, collaboration and self-directed learning.Originality/valueThe originality concerns the proposed conceptual framework which can guide the design, monitoring and analysis of blogging processes in order to reveal students’ learning presence within self-directed communities of blogging.

Blog and Podcast Watch: Cutaneous Emergencies

IntroductionThe WestJEM Blog and Podcast Watch presents high quality open-access educational blogs and podcasts in emergency medicine (EM) based on the ongoing Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) and AIR-Professional series. Both series critically appraise resources using an objective scoring rubric. This installment of the Blog and Podcast Watch highlights the topic of cutaneous emergencies from the AIR series.MethodsThe AIR series is a continuously building curriculum that follows the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) annual testing schedule. For each module, relevant content is collected from the top 50 most accessed sites per the Social Media Index published within the previous 12 months and scored by eight board members using five equally weighted measurement outcomes: Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) score, accuracy, educational utility, evidence based, and references. Resources scoring ≥30 out of 35 available points receive an AIR label. Resources scoring 27–29 receive an “honorable mention” label, if the editorial board agrees that the post is accurate and educationally valuable.ResultsA total of 35 blog posts and podcasts were evaluated. None scored ≥30 points necessary for the AIR label, although four honorable mention posts were identified. Key educational pearls from these honorable mention posts are summarized.ConclusionThis Blog and Podcast Watch series is based on the AIR and AIR-Pro series, which attempts to identify high quality educational content on open-access blogs and podcasts. This series provides an expert-based, post-publication curation of educational social media content for EM clinicians with this installment focusing on cutaneous emergencies.

Media space of the modern school

What should be the media of a modern education institution? How is the educational organization supposed to be represented in social media? What methods of increasing the level of media literacy of teachers and students should optimally use? As the purpose of this study the authors can see in the development and presentation of an optimal model of media space for modern educational institutions which will take into account not only the changes in the education process, but also the needs of the modern audience – teachers, students, parents, and educational partners. The resources of “Moscow e-school” become part of the educational media sphere of modern educational organizations. Resources and methods: resources of an educational institution, namely, social media, blogs and microblogs, users’ accounts, channels, educational platforms, which present the work of educators. The importance of analyzing media of the modern educational institution is that media-education serves as a pedagogical system, allowing the use of modern techniques and technologies through the development of critical thinking, which occurs under the influence of information flows. In this regard, there is a need for the comprehensive approach to the media organization in the modern school. An integral element of the complex approach is the creation of conditions for the development of media literacy for teachers and learners. The result of this research is the optimal model of media space for the modern school, which includes social networking profiles, microblogging, blogs, users’ accounts, and web resources, each of which has its own purpose and functional features. As a conclusion we can note that one of the core values of the media model is the development of creative and critical thinking, the acquisition of experience and tools of media, independent search, the ability to use information flows for the effective communication, solving educational and cognitive, other personal problems and tasks, i.e. the orientation is not so much on the knowledge as on the acquisition of positive experience of the independent work.

Blog and Podcast Watch: Neurologic Emergencies.

IntroductionThe WestJEM Blog and Podcast Watch presents high quality open-access educational blogs and podcasts in emergency medicine (EM) based on the ongoing ALiEM Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) and AIR-Professional series. Both series critically appraise resources using an objective scoring rubric. This installment of the Blog and Podcast Watch highlights the topic of neurologic emergencies from the AIR series.MethodsThe AIR series is a continuously building curriculum that follows the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Director’s (CORD) annual testing schedule. For each module, relevant content is collected from the top 50 Social Media Index sites published within the previous 12 months, and scored by eight board members using five equally weighted measurement outcomes: Best Evidence in Emergency Medicine (BEEM) score, accuracy, educational utility, evidence based, and references. Resources scoring ≥30 out of 35 available points receive an AIR label. Resources scoring 27–29 receive an honorable mention label, if the executive board agrees that the post is accurate and educationally valuable.ResultsA total of 125 blog posts and podcasts were evaluated. Key educational pearls from the 14 AIR posts are summarized, and the 20 honorable mentions are listed.ConclusionThe WestJEM Blog and Podcast Watch series is based on the AIR and AIR-Pro series, which attempts to identify high quality educational content on open-access blogs and podcasts. This series provides an expert-based, post-publication curation of educational social media content for EM clinicians with this installment focusing on neurologic emergencies.

Estilos de aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios: recursos informáticos como estrategia para su evaluación

Los cambios en la sociedad hacen que el proceso educativo esté en constante innovación y movimiento, provocando nuevas concepciones en el rol del docente y estudiante; las tendencias pedagógicas actuales priorizan centrar el proceso de enseñanza- aprendizaje directamente en el alumno, por tal razón resulta fundamental identificar formas en las cuales se adquiere, procesa y recupera la información, denominado por algunos teóricos de la psicología educativa como Estilos de Aprendizaje.Los estilos de aprendizaje ayudan a los profesores a conocer más sobre los estudiantes a los que enseñan y a desarrollar efectivos modelos de desarrollo curricular, también contribuyen con los estudiantes a identificar la forma de cómo perciben, interaccionan y responden en ambientes de aprendizaje, así como desarrollar y aplicar estrategias que potencien su estilo de aprendizaje y permitan por consiguiente un mejor aprovechamiento académico.El objetivo del presente estudio es describir los diferentes estilos de aprendizaje que presentan los estudiantes de primer ingreso en la UNAH y realizar una caracterización de los mismos en función del género y áreas del conocimiento a que pertenece cada uno. El instrumento utilizado fue el Modelo VARK en línea (Flemming & Mills) el cual evalúa estilos de aprendizaje desde una modalidad sensorial basado en las categorías: Visual, Auditivo, Lecto-Escritura y Kinestésico. Para tal efecto, se aplicó la versión en línea de dicho instrumento, la cual se socializó a través de una herramienta de apoyo a la educación presencial diseñada y elaborada gracias a los cursos brindados por la Dirección de Innovación Educativa: los Blogs Educativos.UNAH INNOV@ No 4 2015 pág. 33-39

How to Utilize Blogs for Residency Education.

Blogs are the most commonly utilized social media tool, having outpaced wikis, Twitter, and Facebook.1 Any residency program can utilize a blog to facilitate functions of residency training, including education, administration, and scholarly activities. However, technological barriers may prevent widespread adoption of this platform among graduate medical education programs. In this Rip Out, we guide readers through the basic considerations and steps to help them locate, and participate in, medical education blogs as well as to create their own blog.Web-based tools are increasingly utilized in medical education based on their advantages in overcoming physical and geographical barriers, providing searchable content, and allowing for interactivity.1 These media tools not only provide a venue for rapid dissemination of educational information, but also set the stage for the content creator and learner to easily interact.2A blog is a website that supports informal and conversational dialogue on a variety of topics. Within a residency program, blogs as data exchange can fulfill many of the administrative requirements for a program, such as scheduling rotations, storing contact information, and providing up-to-date information on program events. Residents can post content on a blog for other residents to review, which provides a modern version of “morning report” or “morning rounds.” For asynchronous learning, posts from weekly conferences and other learning experiences can provide residents who were not present access to the material.A blog can facilitate intraprogram collaboration and idea dissemination; residents share their experiences on rotations, discuss pertinent cases, and provide updates on their residency journeys. Faculty can monitor and respond using the blog's comments section to further promote engagement, discussion, and peer-to-peer education. High-quality blogs can promote one's program beyond a home institution and advance resident and faculty careers as an accepted form of scholarly activity.3,4

Blog and Podcast Watch: Pediatric Emergency Medicine.

IntroductionBy critically appraising open access, educational blogs and podcasts in emergency medicine (EM) using an objective scoring instrument, this installment of the ALiEM (Academic Life in Emergency Medicine) Blog and Podcast Watch series curated and scored relevant posts in the specific areas of pediatric EM.MethodsThe Approved Instructional Resources – Professional (AIR-Pro) series is a continuously building curriculum covering a new subject area every two months. For each area, six EM chief residents identify 3–5 advanced clinical questions. Using FOAMsearch.net to search blogs and podcasts, relevant posts are scored by eight reviewers from the AIR-Pro Board, which is comprised of EM faculty and chief residents at various institutions. The scoring instrument contains five measurement outcomes based on 7-point Likert scales: recency, accuracy, educational utility, evidence based, and references. The AIR-Pro label is awarded to posts with a score of ≥26 (out of 35) points. An “Honorable Mention” label is awarded if Board members collectively felt that the posts were valuable and the scores were > 20.ResultsWe included a total of 41 blog posts and podcasts. Key educational pearls from the 10 high quality AIR-Pro posts and four Honorable Mentions are summarized.ConclusionThe WestJEM ALiEM Blog and Podcast Watch series is based on the AIR and AIR-Pro series, which attempts to identify high quality educational content on open-access blogs and podcasts. Until more objective quality indicators are developed for learners and educators, this series provides an expert-based, crowdsourced approach towards critically appraising educational social media content for EM clinicians.

Script Towards Research 2.0: The Influence of Digital and Online Tools in Academic Research

The new Internet technologies have infiltrated in a stunning way the academic environment, both at individual and at institutional level. Therefore, more and more teachers have started educational blogs, librarians are active on Twitter, other educational actors curate web content, students post on Instagram or Flickr, and university departments have Facebook pages and/or YouTube accounts etc.Today, the use of web technology has become “a legitimate activity in many areas of higher education” (Waycott, 2010) and a considerable shift to digital academic research has gradually occurred. Teachers are encouraging students to take up digital tools for research and writing, thus revealing new ways of using information and communication technologies for academic purposes and not just for socializing.The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of integrating diverse digital, Web 2.0 tools and resources and OERs/MOOCs in research and in the construction of students’ academic texts. We aim to stress the increasing influence of digital and online tools in academic research and writing.Teachers, specialists, and students alike are affected by this process. In order to show how, we explore the following issues: What is Research 2.0? Which digital/online tools have we used to assist our students? What are the challenges for academic research using digital / web 2.0 tools? And how do digital tools shape academic research?

Criteria for evaluating an educational blog as a scientific one

Blogs as one of the most widely used Web 2.0 applications, are globally accepted by a large number of Internet users. The educational blogs have a specific audience, purpose and goals. This research paper explores the criteria by which an educational blog can be characterized as scientific. The survey findings show that the educational blog readers regard an educational blog as scientific, taking into consideration certain criteria to which they attribute different significance. The participation of 10 experts on the field and the contribution of the unknown online educational blog readers was the cornerstone for the completion of this study. This research paper attempts to highlight some particular aspects of an issue, that, although it is one of the most widely used in the web, it has not received similar research attention, either locally or internationally.

LO102: ALiEM AIR-Pro Series: identifying quality content from blogs and podcasts for the senior emergency medicine resident

Introduction / Innovation Concept: In 2008, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education endorsed a change such that EM residency programs can decrease their synchronous conference experiences by up to 20% in exchange for asynchronous learning - Individualized Interactive Instruction (III). Identifying quality online resources that would also fulfill III’s reporting criteria (program director monitoring, evaluation component, faculty oversight, program effectiveness) is challenging. Using crowdsourced expertise, the Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) series from Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) was created in 2014 to provide a credible method to identify quality educational blogs and podcasts. The identified resources, however, focused on basic content with limited utility for more senior residents. We thus created the AIR-Pro series in 2015, aimed to cover more advanced concepts. Methods: The AIR-Pro series is a continuously building curriculum covering a new subject area every 2 months. For each area, 6 EM Chief Residents identify 3-5 advanced clinical questions. Using FOAMsearch.net to search blogs and podcasts, relevant posts are scored by 8 reviewers from the AIR-Pro Board (faculty and chief residents at various institutions). The scoring instrument contains 5 measurement outcomes (7-point Likert scale): recency, accuracy, educational utility, evidence based, and references. The AIR-Pro Approved label is given to posts with a score of ≥28 (out of 35) points and these are featured in the blog posting. For scores of 26-27, an Honorable Mention label is given if Board members collectively felt that they were valuable. For each AIR-Pro subject area, a multiple choice quiz is written based on the featured posts. Educator dashboard access of the Google Drive quizzes is given to program directors for monitoring. If approved by their program director, EM residents receive official III credit upon completion of each quiz. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: As of Jan 1, 2016, there have been 2 modules published on ALiEM with 1,220 (Cardiovascular) and 1,059 (Trauma) pageviews worldwide. Although early in development, 21 different institutions are using the AIR-Pro Series with over 150 residents completed the cardiovascular and trauma quizzes. We anticipate more because the original AIR Series has over 73 programs using it for III credit. Conclusion: The AIR-Pro series is a novel, objective, crowdsourced approach towards identifying quality, educational, social media content for the advanced EM resident.

The Benefits of Reflective Blogs in Language-Neutral Translator Education

Abstract: This paper is based on anonymised information taken from online blogs created by students in a translation course taught at Auckland University of Technology (AUT University) as part of their assessment. Auckland is the main destination for entry for both new migrants and refugees and is therefore the dominant region for ethnic diversity. At present, the three main interpreting and translation services in the Auckland area cater to the communicative needs of migrants and refugees representing up to 200 different languages. Students taking this course reflect to some degree the range of ethnic and linguistic communities in the greater Auckland area. Over the past years, translation and interpreting classrooms at AUT have included speakers of Chinese languages, as well as Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Farsi and Vietnamese. This type of multilingual and multicultural classroom has required the development of special language-neutral pedagogies. The current paper describes the use of reflective blogs: students were asked to translate a range of texts involving a variety of culture-specific items (Aixelá, 1996; Davies, 2003) and to use the blogs to reflect on issues identified, resources used and reviewer feedback. The material chosen for translation included a range of texts commonly encountered in public service translation settings; the blog method employed may prove to be beneficial to (student) translators working in public service settings.Resumen: Este artículo está basado en información anonimizada extraída de blogs creados por estudiantes en una asignatura de traducción en la universidad Auckland University of Technology (AUT) como parte de su evaluación. Auckland es el centro con más ingreso de emigrantes y refugiados y de esta manera es la región líder en diversidad étnica. Actualmente, los tres servicios principales de traducción e interpretación en Auckland atienden las dificultades comunicativas de emigrantes y refugiados, representando hasta 200 distintos idiomas. Los estudiantes de esta materia reflejan en cierta medida la diversidad de comunidades étnicas y lingüísticas en la región de Auckland. Durante años, por las clases de traducción e interpretación en AUT han pasado estudiantes de habla coreana, japonesa, árabe, persa, vietnamita como también de dialectos chinos. Este tipo de clase multicultural y multilingüe ha requerido el desarrollo de pedagogías especiales en idioma neutro. Este artículo describe el uso de blogs reflexivos: se le pidió a los estudiantes traducir una variedad de textos que incluían distintos elementos específico-culturales (Aixéla 1996; Davies, 2003) y utilizar sus blogs para reflexionar sobre la identificación de problemas, recursos utilizados y comentarios de crítica de revisión. El material elegido incluyó una variedad de textos que pueden ser encontrados comúnmente en contextos de servicio de traducción publica y el método de blog empleado puede ayudar a (estudiantes) traductores que desempeñan su labor en contextos de servicios públicos.

Implicature in educational blogs. A pragmatics approach

La tecnologia esta multiplicando las formas en que podemos comunicarnos. Desde la aparicion de Internet, la construccion del discurso, los generos discursivos y el lenguaje mismo se han visto afectados por las caracteristicas de este nuevo modo de comunicarse. Aparecen discursos mixtos que hacen necesarios nuevos enfoques. Asi, el estudio de la red desde una perspectiva pragmatica ha abarcado diferentes aproximaciones (el genero, la caracterizacion del lenguaje de los textos, etc.); los blogs han sido considerados como una forma de conversacion. El presente trabajo estudia los blogs educativos desde el punto de vista de las maximas conversacionales de Grice, y, en particular, las implicaturas , para intentar caracterizar estos intercambios y determinar si, y hasta que punto se trata de conversaciones y como se comportan desde un punto de vista pragmatico. Los resultados muestran que los blogs educativos se asemejan mas a una clase magistral que a una conversacion.

Free Open Access Medical Education resource knowledge and utilisation amongst Emergency Medicine trainees: A survey in four countries

IntroductionFree Open Access Medical Education encompasses a broad array of free online resources and discussion fora. The aim of this paper was to describe whether Emergency Medicine trainees in different contexts know about Free Open Access Medical Education, whether or not they know about its different platforms, which ones they use, and what the major barriers to regular usage are.MethodsA convenience sample was surveyed on awareness and use of Free Open Access Medical Education blogs, podcasts, websites and Twitter at three institutions (in Australia, Botswana and Papua New Guinea) and one deanery (United Kingdom) between June 2013 and June 2014 using an online survey tool or via hand-distributed survey.Results44 trainees responded: four from Botswana, seven from Papua New Guinea, ten from the United Kingdom and 23 from Australia. 82% were aware of blogs, 80% of websites, 75% of podcasts and 61% of Twitter as resources in Emergency Medicine. Awareness and use of specific resources were lower in Botswana and Papua New Guinea. For blogs, podcasts and websites, trainees who had looked at a resource at least once were neutral or agreed that it was relevant. For Twitter, some trainees found it difficult to navigate or not relevant. Lack of awareness of resources rather than lack of internet access was the main barrier to use.ConclusionThe Emergency Medicine trainees in both developed and low resource settings studied were aware that Free Open Access Medical Education resources exist, but trainees in lower income settings were generally less aware of specific resources. Lack of internet and device access was not a barrier to use in this group.

A Systematic Review and Qualitative Analysis to Determine Quality Indicators forHealth Professions Education Blogs and Podcasts.

Historically, trainees in undergraduate and graduate health professions education have relied on secondary resources, such as textbooks and lectures, for core learning activities. Recently, blogs and podcasts have entered into mainstream usage, especially for residents and educators. These low-cost, widely available resources have many characteristics of disruptive innovations and, if they continue to improve in quality, have the potential to reinvigorate health professions education. One potential limitation of further growth in the use of these resources is the lack of information on their quality and effectiveness. To identify quality indicators for secondary resources that are described in the literature, which might be applicable to blogs and podcasts. Using a blended research methodology, we performed a systematic literature review using Google Scholar, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and ERIC to identify quality indicators for secondary resources. A qualitative analysis of these indicators resulted in the organization of this information into themes and subthemes. Expert focus groups were convened to triangulate these findings and ensure that no relevant quality indicators were missed. The literature search identified 4530 abstracts, and quality indicators were extracted from 157 articles. The qualitative analysis produced 3 themes (credibility, content, and design), 13 subthemes, and 151 quality indicators. The list of quality indicators resulting from our analysis can be used by stakeholders, including learners, educators, academic leaders, and blog/podcast producers. Further studies are being conducted, which will refine the list into a form that is more structured and stratified for use by these stakeholders.

Using a blog as an integrated eLearning tool and platform

Technology enhanced learning or eLearning allows educators to expand access to educational content, promotes engagement with students and makes it easier for students to access educational material at a time, place and pace which suits them. The challenge for educators beginning their eLearning journey is to decide where to start, which includes the choice of an eLearning tool and platform. This article will share one educator’s decision making process, and experience using blogs as a flexible and versatile integrated eLearning tool and platform. Apart from being a cost effective/free tool and platform, blogs offer the possibility of creating a hyperlinked indexed content repository, for both created and curated educational material; as well as a distribution and engagement tool and platform. Incorporating pedagogically sound activities and educational practices into a blog promote a structured templated teaching process, which can be reproduced. Moving from undergraduate to postgraduate training, educational blogs supported by a comprehensive online case-based repository offer the possibility of training beyond competency towards proficiency and expert level performance through a process of deliberate practice. By documenting educational content and the student engagement and learning process, as well as feedback and personal reflection of educational sessions, blogs can also form the basis for a teaching portfolio, and provide evidence and data of scholarly teaching and educational scholarship. Looking into the future, having a collection of readily accessible indexed hyperlinked teaching material offers the potential to do on the spot teaching with illustrative material called up onto smart surfaces, and displayed on holographic interfaces.

Creating a Virtual Journal Club: A Community of Practice Using Multiple Social Media Strategies

RIP OUT Creating a Virtual Journal Club: A Community of Practice Using Multiple Social Media Strategies Michelle Lin, MD (@M_Lin) Jonathan Sherbino, MD, MEd (@sherbino) The Challenge Rip Out Action Items Health professions educators should: A journal club provides an opportunity to critically appraise the medical literature and apply it to clinical practice. Traditional, in-person journal clubs face challenges of scheduling participants and facilitators, recruiting local experts, and having a limited, local impact. What Is Known Journal clubs may help develop communities of practice involving ‘‘groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.’’ 1 With the advent of modern digital technologies, online medical-related journal clubs are increasing: partici- pation can be synchronous or asynchronous, experts can be recruited from a global pool, and discussions are digitally archived for broader dissemination. In addition, these journal clubs may disseminate educa- tional innovations and interventions to a wider audience for further study, and they provide rapid feedback to authors regarding similar work occurring elsewhere. These online discourses, however, typically incorporate a single social media strategy, such as Twitter-based journal clubs (#UroJC, 2 #NephJC, http://www.nephjc.com). In an age where we view, engage, and learn from multiple digital streams, a virtual journal club requires a multimodal social media strategy to optimize reach and engagement. In January 2015, a virtual medical education journal club called ‘‘JGME- ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education’’ was piloted as a joint collaboration between the Journal of Graduate Medical Education and Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM, an education blog with 1.2 million page views per year). 3 This Rip Out describes how to move from hosting an online, single DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00070.1 Editor’s Note: The online version of this article contains the framework used for the blog post featuring the JGME/ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education journal club. 1. Incorporate multiple social media strategies when devel- oping a virtual journal club. 2. Ensure that facilitators are familiar with different social media platforms, including blogs, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air videoconferencing. 3. Identify the core team, which consists of at least 4 individuals with unique roles and responsibilities: a primary facilitator, a secondary facilitator/social media expert, a featured author, and an expert discussant. 4. Prepare, host, and conclude the virtual journal club in a 5- stage approach: preparation, promotion, journal club launch, livestream video discussion, and curated dissemination. 5. Use web analytics to trend use and reach as indirect measures of success and impact. platform to a virtual, multimodal journal club by using a blog platform as the central repository of information to house blog comments, embedded Twitter comments, and embedded Google Hangouts on Air video discussions. How You Can Start TODAY 1. Technology platform setup a. Create a (or join an existing) blog. b. Ensure that each facilitator has a Twitter account. c. Create a free YouTube channel to host the livestreamed Google Hangouts on Air video- conference. 2. Build the core team: A minimum of 4 core team members are needed to host a virtual journal club. a. Primary facilitator across the platforms (blog, Twitter, videoconference) b. Secondary facilitator and expert in social media platforms c. Author from the featured journal club pub- lication, to participate in the videoconference discussion d. Topic expert to participate in the videocon- ference discussion Journal of Graduate Medical Education, September 2015