Laura Cobus is a Head Librarian you wish you had when you were in college. She had designed and delivered a graduate level public health course, Information Research in Public Health, that was based on blogs and wikis. Laura shares her experience in an article, Using Blogs and Wikis in a Graduate Public Health Course, published in the latest issue of the Medical Reference Services Quarterly.

Her course was held in the computer lab with a goal to teach students effective information seeking skills and search strategies focused on public health outcomes. Alongside the lectures, students were required to write their own blogs and create their own wikis. These assignments were conceived to enhance their informational retrieval skills and critically appraisal, as well as to allow them to self-publish and collaborate.

It comes as no surprise that students were very satisfied with this elective course, which should in the future be incorporated into the overall curriculum. Laura Cobus has showed how a creative teacher can advance health education by utilizing Web 2.0 applications. Our only wish is for others to follow her path.