Replacement for the 10 page paper? A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medical clerkship

Objective Pilot a group assignment using blogs and wikis to develop evidence-based medicine skills in third year medical students on an internal medicine clerkship. Instead of the clerkship’s previous individual ten-page paper assignment, the students were divided into four groups of sixteen. During the clerkship, students are on geographically dispersed rotations. The earlier ten-page paper had required the students to complete a patient history and physical write-up. With the pilot project, each group was assigned a librarian and a physician faculty mentor. Each student recorded on the blog a clinical scenario and question they encountered. They were encouraged to communicate with the librarian to construct a well formed clinical question. Each student group then came to consensus on which question to pursue and collaborated on a wiki including a list of citations to the best available evidence, a critique of the studies, and implications for the patient

4 wikis + 4 blogs + 70 third year Medical School Students = Improved students’ confidence in practicing EBM. A pilot project using blogs and wikis for a collaborative EBM assignment in a 3rd year internal medicine clerkship.

PowerPoint presented at national Medical Library Association conference in Washington DC on May 25, 2010, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Section Program: Beyond Cool: Reflecting on Web 2.0 Adventures and Misadventures