INTRODUCTION
The development of writing skills is an important component of the pharmacy curriculum. Recognizing the importance of communication skills, the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE) incorporated oral and written competencies in its standards [1]. Studies, such as those by Holiday-Goodman [2, 3] and Ranelli [4], report the results of several programs incorporating writing skills into the pharmacy curriculum.
To address some of the writing skills competencies, a Web-based tutorial, “Introduction to Writing a Research Paper,” was developed as a collaborative project with faculty from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the Health Sciences and Human Services Library. The tutorial was designed as a component of the school of pharmacy's “Population-Based Medical Information Analysis” course during the fall semester of 2001. Because its content is cross-disciplinary, the tutorial was subsequently incorporated into the communication skills training for medical residents in the spring of 2002 and promoted to the campus at large.
“Introduction to Writing a Research Paper” is delivered through the campus's Blackboard portal. Blackboard, a software platform for course management, has been adopted as the campus standard for the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
ADVANTAGES OF USING COURSE-MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Piermatti observes that computer-based instruction helps overcome limitations of staffing, scheduling, and large group instruction when teaching library skills to busy pharmacy students [5]. Whelan notes that computer-assisted instruction can also enhance uniformity, relevance, comprehensive coverage, and independent learning skills [6]. Incorporating the instruction in a course-management package facilitates this process in several ways. First, it allows efficient and easy organization of the various course components. Sections for course announcements, lecture notes, assignments, and bibliographies are predefined by the platform and can be integrated with less technical expertise than would otherwise be required. Also, the software allows tracking of student accesses and individual assessment of student performance on practice exercises. Group statistics can be readily monitored.
Another advantage of using Blackboard is the opportunity for increased collaboration between pharmacy and library faculty. Because this was a relatively new format for offering library tutorials, the developers met regularly. The pharmacy faculty pinpointed common writing problems, which were then included in the tutorial's content.
For students, there are other advantages. Using Blackboard as a platform for the tutorial provides a familiar interface because the software is also used in other courses. Incoming PharmD students are required to purchase laptops and are trained to use Blackboard. The writing tutorial is available to them anywhere, anytime. This availability is especially useful for distance-learning students, such as nontraditional pharmacy students, residents, and those on clinical rotations. Students can also review individual components of the tutorial in later semesters, when needed. The assignments component of Blackboard allows instructors to incorporate immediate online feedback for practice exercises.
METHODS
A committee was formed that included library information specialists, the library Web manager, and faculty from the school of pharmacy's drug information service. Coordinating meeting times for this group sometimes proved challenging, but the group met on a regular basis over a three-month period. They revised a tutorial that previously had been presented to pharmacy students as a lecture and PowerPoint presentation. The director of the university's writing center reviewed the tutorial and provided feedback. Based on her suggestions, the tutorial was fine tuned and enriched with additional content and practice exercises.
The tutorial and resource pages were placed within Blackboard's organizational structure. The Blackboard interface has general sections for Announcements, Course Information, Assignments, Books, Course Documents, and External Links. Developers used the Announcements section to remind users to take the survey evaluating the tutorial. Tutorial objectives were placed in Course Information. The tutorial itself was located in Course Documents and was divided into four sections: Steps in Preparing the Paper, Style and Grammar, Citing Resources, and Resources. Students may enter and exit each of these various sections separately. A bibliography of print resources was placed in Books, and a list of Web resources was placed in External Links. DreamWeaver was used to prepare the material for the Web.
Practice exercises were created using Blackboard's Assessment Manager. By placing questions and answers in the framework of the Assessment Manager, students receive immediate feedback. Two practice exercises were developed using this feature. Instructors can review results of exercises and determine whether concepts need better explanations or further student practice.
An important task was the development of a script to be used as a voice-over for the Web pages. The script enhanced the explanations of concepts already included on the slides. Developing a script of the appropriate length was a challenge; it needed to be concise but with enough detail to explain the concepts sufficiently. The audio portion needed to be easy to download. Soundforge was used for the recording, and staff from the library's information technology (IT) department coordinated the voice-over with the corresponding tutorial page.
After the first semester, the module was made available to the entire campus community for independent student use. The tutorial was evaluated using data gathered from Blackboard's tracking features, student assignments, and a user survey. The online user survey was made available in January of 2002.
RESULTS
More than 200 participants accessed the tutorial from September of 2001 through April 2003. Responses to the brief online user survey have been favorable. Since the user survey was posted in January of 2002, 137 participants have accessed the tutorial and, of these, 34 (24.6%) have filled out evaluations. Few problems in accessing the tutorial were reported. Overall, respondents found the sections that describe steps in preparing research papers and citing references the most helpful. Table 1 shows the survey results for how much the tutorial helped participants understand the concepts it presented. Forty-four percent strongly agreed that it was helpful. The survey also examined the tutorial's organization and found that 70.5% of respondents strongly agreed that the organization was easy to follow.
Table 1 Survey question responses to “The tutorial helped assess my understanding of the concepts”
Student comments from the survey include the following:
Great help. I will refer back to it during my semester I am sure.
I would like to know if this can be downloaded to my desktop for future reference? I also think it was very helpful as a refresher to writing a paper for students who have been out of school for awhile.
DISCUSSION AND FUTURE PLANS
Student and faculty feedback indicates that “Introduction to Writing a Research Paper” has been a useful tutorial for UMB students. Offering the instruction in Blackboard has allowed instructors to improve its comprehensiveness and provide exercises for reinforcement. Although it took time to prepare the tutorial, format it for Web presentation, and add the audio component, the effort has been worthwhile. Instructors appreciate the ability to track usage and offer the program campuswide in a password-protected environment.
Future plans are to continue revising and updating the tutorial, add exercises, and provide more printing and downloading capabilities. As faculty and students become more familiar with Blackboard, it is important that the library use the system to provide tutorials on various aspects of library research. Plans have been made to develop additional tutorials and to market them to specific audiences. Written communication skills are important to health professionals, and instructors hope that “Introduction to Writing a Research Paper” will continue to help students improve this critical skill.
Acknowledgments
Brad D. Gerhart, IT support specialist, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, and Pamela DiPesa, former director, University of Maryland, Baltimore Writing Center.
Contributor Information
Virginia L. Stone, Email: vstone@hshsl.umaryland.edu.
Rachel Bongiorno, Email: rbongior@rx.umaryland.edu.
Patricia G. Hinegardner, Email: phinegar@hshsl.umaryland.edu.
Mary Ann Williams, Email: mwilliam@hshsl.umaryland.edu.
REFERENCES
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