gms | German Medical Science

12th Graz Conference – Quality of Teaching

18.09. - 20.09.2008 in Graz, Österreich

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Information Search and Collaborative Working - Practical computer training for medical students

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  • corresponding author Wolfgang Wyskovsky - Medical University of Vienna, Core Unit of Medical Education, Vienna, Austria
  • author Herbert Plass - Medical University of Vienna, Core Unit of Medical Education, Vienna, Austria
  • author Hubert Wiener - Medical University of Vienna, Core Unit of Medical Education, Vienna, Austria
  • author Thorsten Sigmund - Medical University of Vienna, IT-Systems & Communications, Vienna, Austria
  • author Thomas Link - Medical University of Vienna, Core Unit of Medical Education, Vienna, Austria
  • author Richard März - Medical University of Vienna, Core Unit of Medical Education, Vienna, Austria

12. Grazer Konferenz - Qualität der Lehre: Skills and Attitudes. Graz, Österreich, 18.-20.09.2008. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc08grako27

doi: 10.3205/08grako27, urn:nbn:de:0183-08grako273

Received: January 15, 2009
Revised: February 5, 2009
Accepted: February 18, 2009
Published: April 6, 2009

© 2009 Wyskovsky et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Working with a computer has become an important part of our stundents’ life. Although many students use computers for everyday activities, searching the web for information is too often done with little critical attention to the reliability of the source. The web is rarely searched for scientific content or used for collaborative work. In a practical training session medical students had to find specific information about a given topic, compile an overview, and discuss the outcome. Teams of 2 or 3 students, chose one of eight topics. Every student then had to do their own search and document the findings. Finally the team had to submit a written summary. A collaborative working environment was developed for this purpose. Topics for search and discussion were somewhat controversial medical issues which are also broadly discussed by the public such as the “morning after pill” (see table 1 [Tab. 1]). It appears that students prefer common medical problems like alcoholism and contraception. Ethically controversial (scientific) topics like the use of stem cells or prenatal screening are not favored although they are heavily discussed in the public. Interestingly, preventive medicine was not of interest.