Educational technology to facilitate medical students' learning: background paper 2 of the medical school objectives project.

The present article is the second in a series of Background Papers prepared as part of the AAMC's Medical School Objectives Project (MSOP). This report provides information about and insight into U.S. medical schools' use of educational technology in 1998. The authors define educational technology as the use of information technology to facilitate students' learning. They note that in the last two decades, a number of reports have recommended that medical schools incorporate educational technology into their teaching programs. To gain insight into the effects of these recommendations, particularly those of the ACME-TRI Report in 1992, the authors analyzed the responses of administrators at 125 U.S. medical schools to relevant items of the 1997-98 Liaison Committee on Medical Education Part II Medical School Questionnaire and students' responses to relevant items of the 1998 AAMC Medical Student Graduation Questionnaire. In addition, site visits were made to six medical schools believed to be among the more advanced ones in the use of educational technology, to see what was happening on the "cutting edge" of educational technology applications. Data from 20 other schools were also used. The authors found that by 1998, medical schools as a group had made limited progress in accomplishing the recommended educational technology goals, and that there was a much greater use of such technology in basic sciences courses than in clinical clerkships. However, great variability existed across schools in the use of such technology and in the administrative arrangements for it. They observe that the use of educational technology in medical schools is increasing rapidly, and recommend that each school develop a strategic approach that will guarantee that it can meet the future educational technology needs of its students.