Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.
Med Educ. 2011 Feb;45(2):166-75. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2010.03814.x.
academic medical centres may adopt new learning technologies with little data on their effectiveness or on how they compare with traditional methodologies. We conducted a comparative study of student reflective writings produced using either an electronic (blog) format or a traditional written (essay) format to assess differences in content, depth of reflection and student preference.
students in internal medicine clerkships at two US medical schools during the 2008-2009 academic year were quasi-randomly assigned to one of two study arms according to which they were asked to either write a traditional reflective essay and subsequently join in faculty-moderated, small-group discussion (n = 45), or post two writings to a faculty-moderated group blog and provide at least one comment on a peer's posts (n = 50). Examples from a pilot block were used to refine coding methods and determine inter-rater reliability. Writings were coded for theme and level of reflection by two blinded authors; these coding processes reached inter-rater reliabilities of 91% and 80%, respectively. Anonymous pre- and post-clerkship surveys assessed student perceptions and preferences.
student writing addressed seven main themes: (i) being humanistic; (ii) professional behaviour; (iii) understanding caregiving relationships; (iv) being a student; (v) clinical learning; (vi) dealing with death and dying, and (vii) the health care system, quality, safety and public health. The distribution of themes was similar across institutions and study arms. The level of reflection did not differ between study arms. Post-clerkship surveys showed that student preferences for blogging or essay writing were predicted by experience, with the majority favouring the method they had used.
our study suggests there is no significant difference in themes addressed or levels of reflection achieved when students complete a similar assignment via online blogging or traditional essay writing. Given this, faculty staff should feel comfortable in utilising the blog format for reflective exercises. Faculty members could consider the option of using either format to address different learning styles of students.
学术医学中心可能会采用新的学习技术，而这些技术的有效性或与传统方法的比较数据很少。我们进行了一项比较研究，比较了使用电子（博客）格式或传统书面（论文）格式撰写的学生反思性写作，以评估内容、反思深度和学生偏好的差异。
2008-2009 学年，两所美国医学院的内科实习学生被准随机分配到两个研究组中的一个，根据要求，他们要么写一篇传统的反思性论文，然后参加教师主持的小组讨论（n=45），要么在教师主持的小组博客上发布两篇文章，并至少对一位同学的帖子发表一条评论（n=50）。使用试点块的示例来改进编码方法并确定内部一致性。两位盲审作者对写作进行主题和反思水平编码；这两个编码过程的内部一致性分别为 91%和 80%。匿名的实习前和实习后调查评估了学生的看法和偏好。
学生的写作涉及七个主要主题：（一）人性化；（二）专业行为；（三）理解照顾关系；（四）作为学生；（五）临床学习；（六）应对死亡和垂死，以及（七）医疗保健系统、质量、安全和公共卫生。主题的分布在两个机构和研究组之间相似。反思水平在研究组之间没有差异。实习后调查显示，学生对博客或论文写作的偏好取决于经验，大多数人更喜欢他们使用过的方法。
我们的研究表明，当学生通过在线博客或传统论文写作完成类似作业时，所涉及的主题或达到的反思水平没有显著差异。考虑到这一点，教师应该可以放心地将博客格式用于反思性练习。教师可以考虑使用这两种格式来满足学生不同的学习风格。
