Information Retrieval for Dental Professionals		First-time Visitors Returning Visitors email address: password: (Forgot your password?)
This online course is intended to increase your effectiveness and efficiency when searching for information. It was designed using advanced concepts of current Adaptive Hypermedia in Education research. A contemporary, comprehensive store of dental knowledge is not a luxury for practicing dentists; it is as vital as an efficient dental laboratory.*

Background
Many questions dental professionals raise during their work remain unresolved because of lack of time or the inconvenience of securing the answer. While the Web has brought us a world of information at our fingertips, many dentists experience that content on the Web is highly distributed and difficult to find. The current Web does not offer a central directory of all relevant information for dental professionals. In order to use this world of information efficiently, dental professionals need to learn how to search electronic resources, such as the Web and electronic bibliographical databases.

This online course assumes that everybody has already tried to search the Web or other electronic resources. On the same token, it also assumes that everybody has a very different expertise when it comes to finding information. Some users might have tried only a few times and turned away in frustration; others might have read books and articles about information retrieval and want to improve their effectiveness by building on their knowledge. Thus, a one-size-fits-all online course would not help either group of individuals.

Adaptive?
The course "Information Retrieval for Dental Professionals" includes adaptive learning elements allowing a content delivery which fits exactly to your needs. Thus, the intended audience of this course is as broad as the level of expertise in the field of information retrieval among dental professionals ranges. You do not have to wade through pages of text dealing with principles which you have already comprehended. In fact, before you even start the course, you can pick a learning goal allowing you to tailor the content exactly to what you try to accomplish. Based on a little pre-test and quizzes throughout the course, the provided content will be adapted continously—fitting always your actual expertise. Furthermore, you can decide about the learning style; you can have a more conceptual view of the specific topics or you can emphazise a more learning-by-example style.

Personal Tutor
Your Personal Tutor, Petu, will help you to become a master of searching the Web and other electronic resources. The tutor will help you to decide which route to go and will make you aware of knowledge gaps and problems you might encounter. Petu will also explain why certain answers you have given are correct and why others are incorrect. At the very end, the personal tutor will help you with the final evaluation, explain what you have accomplished, describe what you should know now and guide you on how to extent your knowledge on your own beyond the course. Be aware of the little !

Acknowledgement
The design of this course shell was greatly influenced by the work of Peter Brusilosky, a pioneer in the field of Adaptive Hypermedia. Peter teaches at the Department of Information Science and Telecommunications, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. Furthermore, the author and developer wants to thank all individuals who gave input during the different development stages of this course. Special thanks go to Titus Schleyer, who gave input regarding the specifications; Ronald Kaiser, Gisela Spallek and Petra Hiebl who spent a great deal of their valuable time on the formative evaluation of the course. Very valuable expert reviews were performed by William Bartling, Carol Washburn, Andrea Hyde, Amy Gregg, Patricia Corby (all University of Pittsburgh) and Phil Eschallier (Comcation, Inc.). Marcos Kreinacke contributed to the project by providing his expert knowledge of JavaScript and PHP4. Amani Ahmed (Carnegie Mellon University) developed new features for the second version of the course. Thanks!

Have fun learning how to explore the world of information at your fingertips!

Heiko Spallek
hspallek@dental.pitt.edu

(* paraphrased: Wyatt J: Use and sources of medical knowledge. The Lancet 338:1368-1373, 1991)