title: Emergency medicine residents' beliefs about contributing to an online collaborative slideshow.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Collaborative writing applications (CWAs), such as the Google DocsTM platform, can improve skill acquisition, knowledge retention, and collaboration in medical education. Using CWAs to support the training of residents offers many advantages, but stimulating them to contribute remains challenging. The purpose of this study was to identify emergency medicine (EM) residents' beliefs about their intention to contribute summaries of landmark articles to a Google DocsTM slideshow while studying for their Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) certification exam.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the authors interviewed graduating RCPSC EM residents about contributing to a slideshow. Residents were asked about behavioral beliefs (advantages/disadvantages), normative beliefs (positive/negative referents), and control beliefs (barriers/facilitators). Two reviewers independently performed qualitative content analysis of interview transcripts to identify salient beliefs in relation to the defined behaviors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 150 eligible EM residents, 25 participated. The main reported advantage of contributing to the online slideshow was learning consolidation (n=15); the main reported disadvantage was information overload (n=3). The most frequently reported favorable referents were graduating EM residents writing the certification exam (n=16). Few participants (n=3) perceived any negative referents. The most frequently reported facilitator was peer-reviewed high-quality scientific information (n=9); and the most frequently reported barrier was time constraints (n=22).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Salient beliefs exist regarding EM residents' intention to contribute content to an online collaborative writing project using a Google DocsTM slideshow. Overall, participants perceived more advantages than disadvantages to contributing and believed that this initiative would receive wide support. However, participants reported several barriers that need to be addressed to increase contributions. Our intention is for the beliefs identified in this study to contribute to the design of a theory-based questionnaire to explore determinants of residents' intentions to contribute to an online collaborative writing project. This will help develop implementation strategies for increasing contributions to other CWAs in medical education.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine,Université Laval,Québec,Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Archambault
authors.affiliation: ‡Faculty of Medicine,Université Laval,Québec,Canada.
authors.forename: Jasmine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thanh
authors.affiliation: §Department of Emergency Medicine,Queen's University,Kingston,Canada.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blouin
authors.affiliation: †Centre de santé et services sociaux Alphonse-Desjardins (CHAU de Lévis),Lévis,Canada.
authors.forename: Susie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gagnon
authors.affiliation: †Centre de santé et services sociaux Alphonse-Desjardins (CHAU de Lévis),Lévis,Canada.
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poitras
authors.affiliation: ¶Faculté des sciences de l'éducation,Université Laval,Québec,Canada.
authors.forename: Renée-Marie
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Fountain
authors.affiliation: *Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine,Université Laval,Québec,Canada.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fleet
authors.affiliation: ǁMinistère de la santé et des services sociaux,Québec,Canada.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bilodeau
authors.affiliation: **Radboud Reshape and Innovation Center,Radboud University Medical Center,Nijmegen,the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tom H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: van de Belt
authors.affiliation: *Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine,Université Laval,Québec,Canada.
authors.forename: France
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Légaré
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000379:methods*; D007858:Learning; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Theory of Planned Behaviour; collaborative writing applications; evidence-based medicine; free and open access medical education (#FOAMed); knowledge translation; medical education; online learning