Active learning centre: Design and evaluation of an educational world wide web site

Objective. A new medium - World Wide Web (WWW) - has grown rapidly over the last few years. It provides opportunities for development of new educational tools and facilitates learning through interactivity, self-paced study and easy access. The aim of this project was to devise an educational WWW site (Active Learning Centre) that would take advantage of the capabilities of the new medium and assess its utilization by users. Methods. Active Learning Centre provides customizable computer-generated feedback tests, searchable databases (currently Microbiology, Pharmacology, Vaccines, and Spanish-language Cardiovascular Medications), remote WWW-based database authoring, and multilingual support. Its modular architecture allows easy expansion into new areas of knowledge. To evaluate the Active Learning Centre we conducted a study evaluating utilization of the site and user feedback. Results. The site is being used by thousands of patrons from around the world, the majority of whom are health professionals/health profession students from English-speaking countries. Customizable interactive tests are the most popular feature of the site. Most users give the site high ratings and would like it to expand further. Conclusion. The paradigm of combining interactive feedback tests with searchable reference databases has been successful. Further expansion of the site to incorporate other areas of knowledge is planned.