[Baynet] Infopeople's "Rx for Success" online course

[Linda Rodenspiel]

Since some people who may be interested in this workshop might not receive 
this notice directly, we would appreciate it if you would print and post or 
route this announcement to staff and colleagues. Thanks!

Title:  Rx for Success: Consumer Health Information on the Web ( Online 
Learning Course)

Dates:  February 14, 2006 - March 13, 2006

To register for this workshop:  Use the online registration form at
http://infopeople.org/WS/workshop/Workshop/250

Fee:  Because of grant funding, California residents can take this course 
for the subsidized fee of $75.00. The out-of-state fee is $275.00.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 80% of adult 
Internet users in the U.S. have searched for health information online. You 
have undoubtedly come into contact with many of these health seekers; you 
may be one yourself. If you need to be able to identify and evaluate 
reliable health information on the web, then Rx for Success is a course you 
won't want to miss!

This course will emphasize the depth and breadth of the National Library of 
Medicine's MedlinePlus consumer health web resource. You will also explore 
other NLM resources, as well as sites designed for multi-cultural health 
seekers, sites designed for California health seekers, and tools your 
library might create to support consumer health information requests. You 
will learn the skills you need to handle the special challenges of 
providing health information with confidence, and you will improve your own 
and your users' health literacy.


Workshop Description: This four-week online learning course will provide an 
in-depth experience using many different online health resources. Through 
readings, exercises, and discussion you will build skills and knowledge 
that will enable you to be comfortable helping users to find health 
information. You will learn how the reference interview can differ for 
health-related topics, and discuss ways to
create tools that will assist in providing trustworthy information to your 
users. The instructor will provide handouts and a webliography, as well as 
practical, useful tips that can be applied immediately.

During the course, you will be doing exercises and taking quizzes. You will 
also participate in online discussion forums as part of the online learning 
process.

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet 
connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and 
complete the following learning modules:

Module One: Exploring & Using MedlinePlus
--Background information
--What the patron says, what the patron means - conducting a reference 
interview
--Using MedlinePlus' many features

Module Two: Exploring & Using National Library of Medicine and Other 
Government Consumer Health Resources
--Health literacy issues
--What resources are available and when they should be used

Module Three: Evaluation of Online Health Resources
--What we know about consumer searching behavior
--Understanding and using evaluation criteria

Module Four: Useful Sites for Californians
--Online health resources specifically for Californians
--Multilingual online health information
--Creating tools to help direct users to reliable online health information

Workshop Instructor: Bette Anton.  Bette started her career in the Boulder 
[Colorado] Public Library and is now the Optometry and Health Sciences 
Librarian at UC Berkeley. She teaches workshops in Web resources for 
students and faculty in the UCB community, including the School of 
Optometry, the UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program, the School of Public Health 
and the Teaching Library. Bette has been active in several professional 
organizations, including the Medical Library Association and the 
Association of Vision Science Librarians. She is the Sources editor for the 
journal, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.

Online Learning Details: This four-week course will be taught online using 
the web. When you register, you will receive a registration confirmation 
that will include the URL to get to the course, as well as a username and 
password.

Every student proceeds through the online learning modules at his or her 
own pace. Students should expect to commit to spending a minimum of 2 to 2 
1/2 hours per week on this course in order to be successful. You can work 
on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, 
you will be expected to log in to the course each week to do that week's 
assignment. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of the 
course to begin the course work.

Your instructor will be available for limited consultation support for two 
weeks after the official end date of a course, and the course material will 
stay up for an additional two weeks after that, to give anyone who may have 
fallen behind time to work independently on the course. However, you will 
be expected to accomplish the majority of the course in synchronization 
with your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: Anyone from the California library community 
who responds to questions about health information on the Web or has an 
interest in consumer health information. This course is appropriate for 
reference librarians and other public service staff, as well as for 
individuals who seek health information online for themselves or their 
family members.

Prerequisites: This course is taught over the web. You must:

--Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 5 or higher.
--Be able to save Microsoft Word .docs or Adobe .pdf files to your computer 
and print them out. (For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available at 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. Search for 
"Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at 
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).
--Be comfortable navigating on the web and navigating back and forward on a 
website that uses frames.


To view a complete list of Infopeople workshops and for general information 
about Infopeople training opportunities, go to the main Infopeople 
Workshops page at http://infopeople.org/WS/workshop

If you have questions about registration or scheduling of workshops, please 
contact Linda Rodenspiel, the Infopeople Project Assistant, at 
assist at infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.