Research Database
| Project Description | |||
| (submitted 02/09/2004) | |||
| Formative Evaluation of "Information Retrieval for Dental Professionals" | |||
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Contact Information:
3501 Terrace Street Phone (412) 648-8886 |
Principal Investigator: |
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Project Description: Based on research about Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) systems, a new electronic learning environment was developed at the Center for Dental Informatics. AH is an emerging research direction focusing on systems which try to overcome the problem that users with different goals and knowledge may be interested in different pieces of information presented about a topic. This learner-centered education begins with the selection of a learning goal, the evaluation of abilities and the determination of the individual learning style to facilitate the tailoring of the offered material. In order to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the new learning environment a pre- and post-course questionnaire will be matched with learning outcomes in the electronic environment itself. Three target populations are used for this purpose: (Group 1) First year dental students: The electronic learning environment is part of a new course offered to predoctoral students starting in the fall of 2003. (Group 2) Third and Fourth year students: The same method will be used with students who are not enrolled in a dedicated information technology course to compare the outcome (Group 3) dental professionals: Dental practitioners in the Pittsburgh area and dental faculty at the School of Dental Medicine will be asked the same questions to evaluate the effectiveness of the new learning environment as applied to an online continuing dental education course. |
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Project Funding: |
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Please send comments to: Robert J. Weyant, DMD, DrPH: rjw1@pitt.edu
Division of Pediatric and Developmental Dental Sciences School of Dental Medicine University of Pittsburgh