Computer-based instruction in clinical medical education: a pulmonary medicine self-assessment.

This computer assisted teaching program was designed to provide a comprehensive review of pulmonary medicine in the form of a self-assessment. The program consisted of 30 questions including multiple choice, true or false and matching questions. The questions were based on the respiratory chapter from a standard textbook of medicine. Forty students taking their mandatory medicine rotation at a major university teaching hospital used the program. Their scores ranged from 46.7% to 93.3% with a mean of 68.1%. The format enabled the student to answer the questions, to quickly determine which ones he got right and wrong and then he was provided with the correct answer and a reference in the respiratory chapter of the standard textbook of medicine on which the assessment was based. A score was given to each individual so that each student could be his own judge as to how well he did. After reading the references for the questions missed, the learner would decide for himself what area of pulmonary medicine deserved further study.