AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF 'GUIDES AT THE SIDE'WEB-BASED LEARNING ACTIVITIES TO EQUIP STUDENTSIN HEALTH SCIENCES AND NURSING WITHINFORMATION LITERACY SHILLS

摘要

The Open University offers a range of health related programs, including the pre-registration nursing diploma and a foundation degree in health and paramedicsciences. It is a requirement for students on these courses that they develop skillsin finding, accessing, and reviewing information.. Library staff worked withacademics to embed activities into these courses that assist students in developinginformation literacy skills. To overcome the necessity of providing extensive instructions in pout withstudents having to shift constantly from pint to screen, the decision was taken todevelop a series of "guide at the side" activities. The instructions would appearin the "instruction pane" on the left-hand side of tltescmeen and the website ordatabase that the students have to use would appear on the right-hand side inthe "database pane." Surveys of students on two first-level courses provide insight into how ef-fective and enjoyable they found this method of learning. These two courses arecommpulsory in the pre-registration nursing diploma and in the foundation de-gree in health and paramedic sciences. Results show that the majority of studentsfound this method of teaching effective and enjoyable.