BACKGROUND:Curricular medical training on dementia at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Erlangen comprises of a traditional lecture. This setting was compared with two different E-Learning formats using a randomized study design. METHODS: 104 students (average age 26.3 +/- 3.6 years) were randomized into 3 groups: Interactive e-Learning; virtual lecture (slides and audio) and standard lecture (control group; 90 minutes). RESULTS: Overall, the response rate was 40.4 %. Assessment of formal knowledge using a multiple-choice test yielded no differences between the three groups. In the students' evaluation, the interactive e-learning showed the best results (1.86 +/- 0.69), followed by the standard lecture (2.0 +/- 0.71) and the virtual lecture (2.6 +/- 0.8). Nevertheless, the students would not prefer e-learning to the standard lecture when both methods are directly compared. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that e-learning is equivalent to a standard lecture when formal knowledge is assessed. Evaluation results are best for interactive e-learning formats. The detailed reasons for the preference of different learning styles should be further investigated.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: Curricular medical training on dementia at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Erlangen comprises of a traditional lecture. This setting was compared with two different E-Learning formats using a randomized study design. METHODS: 104 students (average age 26.3 +/- 3.6 years) were randomized into 3 groups: Interactive e-Learning; virtual lecture (slides and audio) and standard lecture (control group; 90 minutes). RESULTS: Overall, the response rate was 40.4 %. Assessment of formal knowledge using a multiple-choice test yielded no differences between the three groups. In the students' evaluation, the interactive e-learning showed the best results (1.86 +/- 0.69), followed by the standard lecture (2.0 +/- 0.71) and the virtual lecture (2.6 +/- 0.8). Nevertheless, the students would not prefer e-learning to the standard lecture when both methods are directly compared. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that e-learning is equivalent to a standard lecture when formal knowledge is assessed. Evaluation results are best for interactive e-learning formats. The detailed reasons for the preference of different learning styles should be further investigated.
Authors: Kristine Rasmussen; José Marcano Belisario; Petra A Wark; Joseph Antonio Molina; Stewart Lee Loong; Ziva Cotic; Nikos Papachristou; Eva Riboli-Sasco; Lorainne Tudor Car; Eve Marie Musulanov; Holger Kunz; Yanfeng Zhang; Pradeep Paul George; Bee Hoon Heng; Erica Lynette Wheeler; Najeeb Al Shorbaji; Igor Svab; Rifat Atun; Azeem Majeed; Josip Car Journal: J Glob Health Date: 2014-06 Impact factor: 4.413