Instruction Librarian UC San Diego La Jolla, California
Intro: In the tightly packed space of medical education, librarians seek the most effective ways to reach their students especially in support of problem-based learning. With no time to meet with students, online guides and online instruction becomes the new goal. But, if one is created, will students use it and continue to use it?
Method: This study seeks to determine if online instruction via an online guide (Libguide) makes a difference in the types of resources students cite as well as how the students interact with the online guide. In addition to a student survey, CrazyEgg's heat map tool and Springshare statistics will be used to note usage of the online guide.
Results: Nearly unanimous agreement was found to the statement I learned about new resources. However learning and applying new skills was split between agreement and neutral/disagreement. Usage or view statistics showed good use of the guide for the year with 5,931 views. Looking at the interactions for one case late in the quarter showed 156 views with 57 returning users, 9 new users, and a quick selection and click on a resource taking less than 20 seconds.
Conclusions: The survey response, while providing equal number of users and non-users, was low with only 38% response rate. It did provide insight into the acceptability of using Libguides for small doses of online instruction. Student responses provided actionable items that could help improve the guide but their list of most helpful/least helpful sections included mostly the same items. Two items did emerge: 1) Links to favorite resources are useful, and 2) citation examples are not. Those who did not use it preferred resources that may or may not serve them well as they move into the clerkship and practice setting. The heat map showed interesting usage of the guide beyond the basic view statistics available in Springshare including more specific views of the current case, returning as well as new users, resources accessed and how quickly they were selected.
