Repositories for Educational Materials

Peer Review Web-Base Repositories

The BEME CollaborationA group of individuals or institutions who are committed to the promotion of Best Evidence Medical Education (http://www.bemecollaboration.org/)
The Family Medicine Digital Resources Library (http://www.fmdrl.org) contains user-posted conference presentations and handouts, and shared curricular materials such as PowerPoint lectures, learning modules, syllabi, digital images, video and audio recordings, recommended Web sites and more.
POGOe
- (www.pogoe.org) an online clearinghouse, providing an outlet for dissemination of high quality geriatric educational products.
Hafler et al Peer Review Repositories table (below) from Chapter 14: Scholarship of the Guidebook for Clerkship Directors

Repository	Main Characteristics
AAMC – MedEdPORTAL (formerly CACHE, Competencies Across the Continuum of Health Education) www.aamc.org/meded/ mededportal/cube/start.htm	Promotes collaboration across both disciplines and institutions by facilitating the exchange of peer reviewed educational materials, knowledge, and solutions. Faculty and medical schools may publish and share instructional and assessment materials. Much broader scope than any other medical education repository. Reviews and publishes basic teaching multimedia, faculty development materials and virtual patients. Reviewers are medical faculty members. Relies only on invited reviewers Submissions are peer reviewed using a standardized instrument developed by an AAMC Peer Review task force based on accepted standards of educational scholarship (see sample of items below). Plans to create an Educational Standards Repository, a system that will provide users with unprecedented ability to precisely locate materials they desire. Plans to provide faculty with information regarding the number of times their published resource has been downloaded and used by others. (Retrieved from www.aamc.org/meded/mededportal/faq.htm#top, 3/19/05)
HEAL (Health Education Assets Library) www.healcentral.org/submit/ submitInstructions.jsp	Digital library Provides freely accessible digital teaching materials of the highest quality Encourages educators to submit their innovative resources for review and publication in the HEAL Reviewed Collection (See sample of items below) Reviewers are health sciences and clinical sciences educators Calls for reviewers regularly (Retrieved from www.healcentral.org, 3/19/05)
STFM Bookstore (Society of Teachers of Family Medicine) http://www.stfm.org/bookstore/	Publications are peer reviewed to determine their usefulness and applicability. Review of publications for marketing by STFM is available to all Society members. Reviewers are members of the society. For inclusion, publications must meet one of three criteria: (1) Published by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine; (2) Written or edited by a member of the Society; (3) Not generally available through usual sources (Retrieved from www.stfm.org/bookstore, 3/1905)
MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) www.merlot.org/Home.po	Designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Collects links to online learning materials along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments. Evaluation standards can be used by faculty to select new materials to submit, review existing materials, and provide requirements for the development of new materials. The three general categories of evaluation standards used are: (1) Quality of Content; (2) Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool; (3) Ease of Use. Learning materials are organized into discipline communities Reviewers are higher education faculty members and peer users of the materials as opposed to peers authors of the materials. (Retrieved from http://taste.merlot.org/catalog/peer_review/eval_criteria.htm,3/19/05)
EPERC (End of Life/Palliative Education Resource Center) www.aahpm.org/resources maintained by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine	Shares educational resource material among the community of health professional educators involved in palliative care education. Fast facts, peer-reviewed and other educational materials can be searched. New materials can be submitted to this web-site repository. Reviewers are health sciences and clinical sciences educators. (Retrieved from www.eperc.mcw.edu/purpose.htm, March 19th 2005)

SAMPLE of items from MedEdPORTAL AND HEAL

Web-Peer-Review- Evaluation Form (Standardized Instrument)
(Retrieved from www.aamc.org/meded/mededportal/faq.htm#top and www.healcentral.org March 19, 2005)

Goals

Targeted audience is identified
Description of material is accurate and up-to-date
Description of material includes clear goals or statement of purpose

Preparation and content quality

Content is accurate and up-to-date throughout the material
Citations, references, credits and/or links are relevant
Citations, references, credits and/or links are complete

Methods: effectiveness of materials

Instructional/assessment methods are appropriate for the stated goals
Multimedia is effectively used
Learning activities are used effectively (e.g., learner navigation)
Feedback is used effectively
ethods maintain learner dignity
Materials is engaging

Presentation and ease of use

Material is easy to install
Application, loads, launches, and executives smoothly
Material is easy to use
Material offers effective help functions
Content is clear and well-organized
Video quality is good
Audio quality is good
Image/illustration is good
The quality of the specimens is good

Significance

Material offers an innovative learning/teaching method
Evidence of product effectiveness is provided
Documentation describes how the material builds on prior work
Material contributes to the field
Material can be customized to fit a range of curricula/course

Reflective critique

Documentation includes lessons learned, future directions or suggestions for adaptations or extensions
Documentation provides sufficient information to guide others in using the materials