Promoting academic writing/referencing skills: Outcome of an undergraduate e-learning pilot project

Future health care professionals will require self-directed learning skills. e-Learning is a tool to assist in this process and therefore there is a need to develop the capacity and readiness to utilise e-learning within educational programmes. The aim of this study was to determine if extra-curricular online referencing and anti-plagiarism lectures would be utilised and would ultimately improve 1st-year undergraduate health sciences students’ performance in written assessments. A series of six online archived multimedia lectures (asynchronous) were offered. Adult learning theory principles guided the resource design. Pre- and post-testing of knowledge, attitudes and computer skills was carried out. In-person tutorials and online email support were also offered. Less than 36% (self-report) of students accessed the online resources. The poor uptake revealed in this study is consistent with a number of other studies. These findings indicate the need for more careful scrutiny of the learning theory applied in e-learning design. Prochaska’s transtheoretical model is suggested as a framework with strong potential for e-learning initiatives