Abstract

FERNANDEZ DE LA PUEBLA-GIMENEZ, R.A. et al. On-line learning with e-mail tutoring for clinical images is more efficient than traditional teaching methods. Educ. méd. [online]. 2008, vol.11, n.1, pp.29-35. ISSN 1575-1813.

Introduction. The teaching of Internal Medicine through images is the key for the achievement of clinical skills in the diagnosis. Aims. To compare the efficiency of a teaching method based on images in a face-to-face learning situation with the traditional teaching methods, and to evaluate the degree of satisfaction amongst the alumni regarding the new teaching method within the Internal Medicine. Materials and methods. The study was carried out throughout the academic year 2005/06 amongst 62 Internal Medicine students in the School of Medicine in Córdoba. Two teaching methods were compared: (i) face-to-face -15 images were exposed in workshops, and (ii) distance- clinical images were exposed at the School of Medicine web site through a tutorial system based on e-mail. The evaluation consisted in a clinical evaluation of 16 images -8 images for each teaching method. The results from the multiple choice exam and the clinical images exam were also compared. Finally, students answered an assessment questionnaire. Results. The final average qualification -out of 10- for the images was: 6.8 ± 1.5 and for the multiple choice exam -out of 10- was 7.3 ± 0.9. The average qualification was higher for the images exposed at the web site than for the face-to-face model: (7.4 ± 1.6) vs (6.3 ± 1.7) p < 0.0001. There was a correlation between the total punctuation for the images and the examination (r: 0.584, p < 0.0001). Moreover, there was also a correlation between the qualification obtained for the images in the face-to-face method and the images exposed on-line (r: 0.697, p < 0.0001). Conclusions. Qualifications for the cases displayed on the website were higher than those for the cases exposed on the face-to-face workshops. In addition to this, students had a very positive opinion regarding the new teaching method for Internal Medicine based on clinical images.

Keywords : Clinical images; On-line learning; Traditional teaching.

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