A Computer “Boot Camp” for Academic Medicine Faculty

Objective: The Office of Medical Education Research and Development (OMERAD) at Michigan State University sponsors an annual faculty development seminar series dedicated to training academic physicians in essential faculty skills. Computer skills such as word processing, preparing scientific presentations, information retrieval and management, electronic communication, and bibliographic reference management are imperative to professional productivity and development. Because most academic medicine faculty never receive training in computer skills,1 a series of workshops was developed in 1998 based on Carroll's minimalist design principles.2 Using Carroll's principles, and the analogy to the military approach to training, the seminar series was named Computer Boot Camp. Description: After a needs assessment, six topics were identified as high-priority training needs: advanced word processing, presentation graphics (PowerPoint), electronic mail, PubMed, bibliographic reference management (EndNote), and World Wide Web. Each participant was given a realworld task that framed the instruction, a self-guided manual, a computer station, two hours to complete the task, and technical assistance, if needed. The instructional materials were designed according to Carroll's principles of minimalist design. (1) Train on real tasks. Tasks familiar to academic physicians were used to frame learning. For example, the advanced word processing session used a grant proposal that included charts and tables. (2) Get started fast. Learners will try to do things with the computer as soon as they feel they can; they will not “wait for the instruction.” This principle was brought home when learners at the first session began working through the selfguided manual as soon as the session began and would not attend to a demonstration of the functions they were to learn. (3) Coordinate systems and training. Successful training systems incorporate linkages between the instructional materials and the action on the screen. Liberal use of “screen shots” throughout the manual helped depict what the user's computer screen should look like. (4) Support error recognition and recovery. All learners can be expected to make mistakes. Effective instruction must include plans for this contingency. We advised participants to become very familiar with the “undo” function. (5) Use the situation. The fine details of a real-world situation can guide the development of instruction. The “real-world” task of creating a scientific presentation, or retrieving information from the PubMed database, creates a rich set of learning stimuli and suggests the content and organization of computer instruction. Discussion: An average of 91% of participants across all topics completed the workshop tasks and an average of 64% were continuing to use the skills when surveyed three months after the workshops. All participants reported that the organization of the workshops and training materials had been key to learning the various computer skills.