Web Tutorial Research Articles

A New Approach to Rater Training and Certification in a Multicenter Clinical Trial

Recent evidence demonstrates that the quality of raters' applied clinical skills is directly related to study outcome. As such, the training and evaluation of raters' clinical skill in administering symptom-rating scales is essential before being certified to rate patients in clinical trials. This study examined a novel approach to rater training and certification that focused on both conceptual knowledge and applied skills. Forty-six raters (MDs = 14; PhDs = 7; MA = 5; BA/LPN/RN = 20) in a large multicenter depression study went through a 2-step Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) certification process: didactic training, administered online via an interactive Web tutorial, and live, applied training, where raters interviewed depressed patients while being remotely observed via 3-way teleconference. Raters' applied skills were evaluated using the Rater Applied Performance Scale (RAPS), designed specifically to evaluate critical rater behaviors associated with good clinical interviews. Raters received feedback immediately following the interviews; those receiving a failing score were given 2 more opportunities to pass. Each subsequent session was accompanied by feedback, and was conducted by a different trainer, who was blind to the results of the previous session as well as to which session number it was, to avoid bias. Raters who failed on the third attempt were excluded from rating patients in the trial. All training and testing occurred prior to the startup meeting. Results found a significant improvement pre-to-post Web training in raters knowledge of scoring conventions, P < 0.001. On the applied component, raters' RAPS scores improved significantly on the second attempt following feedback, from 9.05 to 11.58, P < 0.001, and from their second to their third session (from 9.00 to 11.00, P = 0.033. Three raters failed all 3 attempts and were excluded from the study. Results support the efficacy of the approach in improving both conceptual knowledge and applied interviewing skill.

Enriched rater training using Internet based technologies: A comparison to traditional rater training in a multi-site depression trial

Objective The evaluation and training of raters who conduct efficacy evaluations in clinical trials is an important methodological variable that is often overlooked. Few rater training programs focus on teaching and assessing applied clinical skills, and even fewer have been empirically examined for efficacy. The goal of this study was to develop a comprehensive, standardized, interactive rater training program using new technologies, and to compare the relative effectiveness of this approach to “traditional” rater training in a multi-center clinical trial. Method 12 sites from a 22 site multi-center study were randomly selected to participate (6 = traditional, 6 = enriched). Traditional training consisted of an overview of scoring conventions, watching and scoring videotapes with discussion, and observation of interviews in small groups with feedback. Enriched training consisted of an interactive web tutorial, and live, remote observation of trainees conducting interviews with real or standardized patients, via video- or teleconference. Outcome measures included a didactic exam on conceptual knowledge and blinded ratings of trainee’s audiotaped interviews. Results A significant difference was found between enriched and traditional training on pre-to-post training improvement on didactic knowledge, t(27) = 4.2, p < 0.0001. Enriched trainees clinical skills also improved significantly more than traditional trainees, t(56) = 2.1, p = 0.035. All trainees found the applied training helpful, and wanted similar web tutorials with other scales. Conclusions Results support the efficacy of enriched rater training in improving both conceptual knowledge and applied skills. Remote technologies enhance training efforts, and make training accessible and cost-effective. Future rater training efforts should be subject to empirical evaluation, and include training on applied skills.

Recognizing Quality

ABSTRACT Students' lack of judgment in evaluating Web resources is often decried by their instructors. A librarian and a chemistry professor designed a Web tutorial to teach this process to students in the class “Chemistry in Daily Life.” The literature surrounding Web tutorials and students' online behavior is also examined.

Next steps for the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) Virtual Training Suite?

Purpose – The paper seeks to investigate the benefits of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) Virtual Training Suite.Design/methodology/approach – This paper gives an overview of the service, its impact in the community and its funding history and future.Findings – The RDN Virtual Training Suite offers free, subject‐based internet training online. It was designed to provide a user‐education service to supplement the services offered by the RDN. The Virtual Training Suite comprises 61 “teach yourself” web tutorials, with titles ranging from “Internet Chemist” to “Internet Philosopher”. Each offers the user a tour of the best of the web for the subject, plus guidance on internet searching and web site evaluation. Evidence suggests that it is being widely adopted in taught courses and library instruction.Originality/value – The paper is useful for anyone planning to use the RDN Virtual Training Suite.

The Remote Library and Point-of-Need User Education

This paper discusses information literacy instruction from the perspective of Charles Sturt University, an Australian university with a high proportion of distance learning students. Topics covered include e-mail, Ask-A-Librarian services, online forums (a form of newsgroup developed at Charles Sturt University), online Chat, NetMeeting, Webezy (a Web tutorial), Camtasia Studio, an animated screen capture tool, and the embedding of information literacy instruction tutorials within the curriculum. There is some discussion of programs at other tertiary institutions, especially Australian universities. It is argued that in the field of information literacy instruction the role of the librarian is changing significantly, and that university librarians must both adapt to new educational paradigms and seek out new partnerships.

Webinar Technology

SUMMARY This article reviews the current state of Webinar technology from a library perspective: what it is, how it works, and the many features Webinars commonly provide, including: polling, annotation tools, document sharing, recording, archiving, and reporting. The authors offer a brief look at types of organizations using Webinar technology, and which vendors are active in this rapidly developing market. Possible library applications are discussed and the authors' personal Webinar experiences are shared. A comparison to similar Web-based technologies such as Web tutorials, virtual reference, courseware management systems, videoconferencing, and Webcasting is also included.

JCE Resources for Chemistry: Health and Wellness

This annotated bibliography collects the best that past issues of JCE have to offer for use with this year's National Chemistry Week. Each item has been characterized as an activity, calculation, demonstration, experiment, informational, software/video, Web tutorial, or WebWare item; several fit more than one classification. The most recent articles are listed first. An indication of the levels the article may serve are included.

Recent Work in Computational Linguistic Phylogeny

Recent work in computational linguistic phylogeny* Joseph F. Eska and Don Ringe 1. Introduction A number of recent attempts by nonlinguists to reconstruct linguistic evolutionary trees have made news. Reconstructions of the phylogeny of the Indo-European (IE) family of languages are especially well represented; well-known examples include Rexová et al. 2003, Gray& Atkinson 2003—which is discussed by Searls (2003) and briefly reported in U.S. news & world report (10 December 2003)—and Forster & Toth 2003, which also generated considerable attention in the popular media. Scientific linguists have not been impressed for a variety of reasons. Though no two of the publications in question exhibit exactly the same weaknesses, all can be impugned on one or more of the following grounds: the linguistic data employed have not been adequately analyzed, or—in some cases—even competently analyzed; the model of language change employed has not been shown to fit the known facts of language change; attempts to fix the dates of prehistoric languages have ignored the fatal shortcomings of glottochronology discovered by Bergsland and Vogt (1962; see further §4); the researchers assume that vocabulary replacement is governed by a lexical clock (similar to the controversial molecular clock posited by some biological cladists);1 and/or the data set used is too small to yield statistically reliable conclusions. A thoroughgoing critique of all recently published work in this vein would be unwieldy and would require far more space than a discussion note permits. Instead, we focus on the article that best exemplifies the shortcomings listed above, namely the work of Forster and Toth. 1.1 In an article published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Peter Forster and Alfred Toth propose a new computational method for recovering the dates of prehistoric events of linguistic speciation (2003, cited hereafter as F & T). The article appeared with an online appendix,2 as well as references to a web tutorial describing how F & T handle their linguistic data.3 If F & T’s proposal were scientifically adequate, it could represent an important methodological advance in historical linguistics. But we demonstrate in this discussion note that they control neither the data nor the necessary linguistic methodology, that their treatment of linguistic data amounts to an explicit rejection of scientific historical linguistics to the point that it could be called antiscientific, and that their application of computational methods for recovering linguistic evolutionary trees is inadequate to prove the dating of prehistoric linguistic events that they claim. [End Page 569] We wish to emphasize two points at the start. First, we critique F & T’s online appendix and web tutorial together with their published article, since all those materials together constitute a coherent published project. Second, the reader should bear in mind that the main thrust of F & T’s work is the dating of prehistoric linguistic events. Every other part of their project—including their selection and processing of the data, discussed mostly on the associated web sites—serves as input to the process of inferring dates; thus a serious error in any single part invalidates the inference of dates. We show that there are serious errors in every part of their work. 2. Errors in the selection and treatment of the data Any attempt to assess phylogenetic relationships among human languages rests crucially upon the accurate selection and coding of the data. Just as small programming errors can lead to severe problems in the operation of computer software, errors and/or ambiguities in the selection and coding of linguistic data can lead to significant errors in the construction of phylogenetic trees. Work of this kind, then, requires either an intimate knowledge of the languages concerned or access to sources that one can trust to be reliable. F & T elect to base their project on the Celtic languages, but it is very clear to us that they not only are not familiar with the linguistic data that they use, but also are not familiar enough with the current state of Celtic historical linguistics to make critical use of the secondary literature. Sometimes they simply ignore what their sources have to say. 2.1 We first note that F...

TIP: tutorial for information power and campus‐wide information literacy

The University of Wyoming Libraries has implemented an interactive Web tutorial focused on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards. Since its inception, approximately 3,000 students have used TIP: tutorial for information power. At this point it is appropriate to pause and reflect on our experience. Have we met our original objectives? Was TIP worth the time, effort, and expense required to develop a Web tutorial? Has it had an impact on information literacy on our campus?

A framework of synthesizing tutoring conversation capability with web-based distance education courseware

Whereas existing learning environments on the Web lack high level interactivity, we have developed a human tutor-like tutorial conversation system for the Web that enhances educational courseware through mixed-initiative dialog with natural language processing. The conversational tutoring agent is composed of an animated tutor, a Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) module, a database with curriculum scripts, and a dialog manager. As in the case of human tutors, the meaning of learner's contributions in natural language are compared with the content of expected answers to questions or problems specified in curriculum scripts. LSA is used to evaluate the conceptual matches between learner input and tutor expectations, whereas the dialog manager determines how the tutor adaptively responds to the learner by selecting content from the curriculum script. The integration of available courseware with the tutorial dialog system guarantees the reusability of existing Web tutorials with minimal effort in the modification of the curriculum script and LSA module. This development thereby simplifies the change into more valuable Web based training courseware.

Generic design of Web-based clinical databases.

BackgroundThe complexity and the rapid evolution and expansion of the domain of clinical information make development and maintenance of clinical databases difficult. Whenever new data types are introduced or existing types are modified in a conventional relational database system, the physical design of the database must be changed accordingly. For this reason, it is desirable that a clinical database be flexible and allow for modifications and for addition of new types of data without having to change the physical database schema. The ideal clinical database would therefore implement a highly-detailed logical database schema in a completely-generic physical schema that stores the wide variety of clinical data in a small and constant number of tables.ObjectiveThe objective was to review the medical literature regarding generic design of clinical databases.MethodsA search strategy was devised for PubMed and Google to get the best match of peer-reviewed articles and free Web resources on the subject.ResultsEight peer reviewed articles and a Web tutorial were found. All the resources described the so-called Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) design as a means of simplifying the physical layout of data tables in a clinical database. In Entity-Attribute-Value design all data can be stored in a single generic table with conceptually 3 columns: 1 for entity (eg, patient identification), 1 for attribute (eg, name), and 1 for value (eg, "Jens Hansen"). To add more descriptive fields to the entity class, all that is necessary is to add attribute values to be stored in the attribute field. The main advantages of the Entity-Attribute-Value design are flexibility and effective entity-centered data retrieval. The main disadvantages are complicated front-end programming needed to display data in a conventional layout that the user understands and less-efficient attribute-centered queries. The Internet offers unique opportunities for database deployment, eliminating problems of user-interface deployment. Furthermore, Web forms may be generated in a completely-generic fashion during run time from metadata describing the semantic structure of clinical information stored in the database.ConclusionsThe Entity-Attribute-Value model is useful for generic design of clinical databases. Depending on the specific requirements of the application, more or less complex metadata models may be applied.

Lecture versus Web tutorial for pharmacy students' learning of MDI technique.

To compare pharmacy students' acquired knowledge and ability to assess metered-dose inhaler (MDI) technique after a traditional lecture versus a Web-based MDI technique tutorial. All 42 third-year PharmD students completed a baseline MDI technique knowledge test and were then randomized into 1 of 3 groups. The Web group completed the tutorial on the college dispensing laboratory computers; the lecture group participated in the MDI technique excerpt of the asthma therapeutics lecture; and the control group participated in a 15-minute discussion of participants' hobbies. Afterward, participants in each group completed an identical MDI technique knowledge posttest. Students then observed a standardized mock patient perform MDI technique, documenting steps that were conducted incorrectly. MDI technique knowledge test and MDI technique evaluation test scores were compared between groups using repeated measures ANOVA. There was no significant difference in the baseline MDI technique knowledge test scores between groups. The post-MDI technique knowledge test scores for the Web and lecture groups did not differ significantly (p = 0.38), and both were significantly different from the control group (p < 0.001). MDI technique knowledge scores increased significantly for the Web and lecture groups from pre- to post-assessment, but did not change for the control group. A 2-way repeated measures ANOVA analysis demonstrated no significant interaction of subject and group characteristics. The MDI technique evaluation scores for the Web and lecture groups were not significantly different (p = 0.50), and both were significantly different from the control group (p </= 0.001). The Web-based MDI technique tutorial was as effective as the standard lecture format in pharmacy students acquiring knowledge of MDI technique and in evaluating a mock-patient exhibiting incorrect MDI technique. Further testing is required to assess the longitudinal effect of the program.

Teaching Teachers to Teach

Abstract In June 2000, the Illinois State Board of Education adopted new state standards for all accredited teacher education programs. Professional certification programs must demonstrate compliance to the standards by July 2003. Library faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University partnered with the Educational Studies department to address the Core Technology Standards for information access, research, and information literacy through curriculum development. The program includes a combination of an information literacy pre-test, a self-paced, open source Web tutorial, traditional library instruction sessions, one-on-one student-librarian consultations with student teachers, and collaborative course design. The overall goal of the program is to improve librarian-teacher cooperation through instruction in the information literacy skills outlined in the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, and to mentor pre-service teachers in practical methods of integrating information literacy ins...

Web tutorials and scalable instruction: testing the waters

In an effort to meet the challenge of providing students in a large general education course with effective library instruction, a pilot project of using a Web tutorial was tested. This article describes librarian collaboration with faculty in the development of a Web tutorial and supplementary course materials over the course of three semesters. The success of the original experiment convinced the teaching assistants and faculty member to incorporate the tutorial into the class syllabus. Unique to this Web tutorial is the continued involvement of the librarian in responding to each student. This successful instructional tool has been adapted for other courses, and can be a model for reaching large numbers of students.

Distilling the Information Literacy Standards

This paper describes the history and rationale for an interactive multimedia Web tutorial that was created by librarians at the University of Wyoming to serve the needs of distance learners and on-campus students. The tutorial is called TIP, Tutorial for Information Power, and it moves beyond standard library instruction in its focus on the broader concepts of information literacy. Also discussed is the creative process of developing TIP, including how the authors determined which information literacy standards were most appropriate for inclusion. The initial evaluation of TIP is described, as well as future possibilities.

Modeling and the use of graphics in Web tutorials: A lesson from social learning theory

Formation, a l'aide d'un tutoriel, des etudiants a l'utilisation des ressources de bibliotheque

Faculty and Student Attitudes toward Credit Courses for Library Skills

Faculty, student, and library staff attitudes toward credit courses, as well as various other instructional methods, for teaching library and research skills were assessed. A surprising number of faculty and students did not know about the courses offered. Although other methods, such as Web tutorials and written guides, are preferred, credit courses may still be considered a viable option. To be successful, the courses must be well marketed to both faculty and students, and their importance and content must be clearly understood by faculty advisors.

Web Tutorials for Education Students

ABSTRACT The role of library instruction in developing students' critical thinking skills is an important issue in academic librarianship. Web tutorials offer education students a viable, cost-effective, participatory, and self-paced alternative to the traditional fifty-minute library instruction session. Although Web tutorials cannot provide all of the answers needed by library users, they can be an effective educational tool for engaging students in the active learning process.

FALCON: an interactive library instruction tutorial

Bowling Green State University Jerome Library’s Web tutorial, FALCON, models a standard library instructional session on the use of the library’s Web‐based catalog. Tutorials can be particularly helpful in reaching large numbers of students. The degree of interactivity and the design of a tutorial are dependent on the goals of its creators and the intended audience of the product. Several features make FALCON unique. It is interactive, self‐contained and focuses on a single resource. Interactivity is accomplished without scripts or forms. The tutorial’s self‐containment, achieved with a complex system of files and without a live catalog connection, enables users to learn how to search the catalog at their own pace, at a time or place of their choosing and without the threat of venturing into cyberspace. Future enhancements to the tutorial will include assessment and evaluation materials.

Using the World Wide Web to Teach Everyday Applications of Social Psychology

The potential benefits of the World Wide Web (Web) in teaching college courses in psychology stem from the wealth of information available to instructors and students, the ease of access to that information, and the hypermedia richness of Web documents. In this article, I describe the introduction of the Web into an advanced course in social psychology using activities that entailed collaboration and knowledge sharing, direct experience with information in various formats, and manipulation of information into new forms. The activities included Web Assignments associated with assigned readings, a Social Psychology and Humor project, a Social Psychology in the News project, and the development of a Web Tutorial on a social psychological topic. I discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of using the Web in this context.