Abstract

POPESCU, Bogdan Mihai  and  NAVARRO, Viviana. Comparative study between learning on line and traditional lectures for medical students in Argentina. Educ. méd. [online]. 2005, vol.8, n.4, pp.28-31. ISSN 1575-1813.

It is not known if medical students can learn better or not with online methods than with traditional lectures. There are not many randomized studies that substantiate this belief, especially in Latin American settings. Purpose: To compare two different methods of learning diabetes’ treatments (DT) in two groups of advanced medical students. One group used an online forum, the other group a traditional lecture. Method: We conducted surveys among 120 medical students of the Northeastern National University of Argentina. The first survey was a questionnaire of 20 items about DT. The students were then randomized to two groups: one assigned to traditional lecture, and another assigned to an online Forum about DT. The students were not aware of the study’s purpose. The same guidelines were provided to both groups. Duration of the lecture was 2 hours. The group working online was connected at the same time to the Web forum for 48h. 70 hours after the lecture and the on line exposure all students repeated the initial questionnaire. Results: 107 students were included (13 were excluded because they didn’t complete one of the questionnaires). The average performance of the lecture’s group was 8.30+/-2.48 points before, and 9.76+/- 2.17 after the educational intervention. In the Web program group it was 8.39 +/- 2.14 points initially, and 9.76 +/- 2.8 after. The p was >0.10 comparing the lectures and the internet groups. Conclusion: Learning a therapeutic subject by Argentinean students was equally as effective with Web based learning as with traditional lectures.

Keywords : Comparative study; Medical Undergraduate Education; Internet-Lectures; Web based learning-online learning.

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