Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Apr 4;23(1):209. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04159-7.
This study investigated medical students' intended learning outcomes based on e-learning and in-person education.
In this cross-sectional comparative analytical study, a group of 126 undergraduate medical students' intended learning outcomes under two different teaching methods, including e-learning and in-person, were repeatedly measured based on the census sampling method. Participants were in the preclinical curriculum phase (physiopathology) at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Iran. Due to expert panel opinion, the same medical teachers and similar difficulty of lessons were considered in two investigated academic semesters. In addition, difficulty and discrimination indexes of formative and summative assessments were controlled for two study groups. The students' learning outcome index was the knowledge test scores participants received in the relevant lessons of the General Medicine (GM) curriculum preclinical courses.
The findings indicated that students learning outcomes were significantly higher during e-learning than in in-person education for all examined variables (P < 0.05). Moreover, the difference between students' Grade Point Average (GPA) categories among the two groups was significant (P = 0.022). Students with a GPA of less than 14 experienced higher increments in their average scores after the e-learning compared to in-person education. Compared to face-to-face courses, improvements in pharmacology, theoretical semiology, and pathology scores after e-learning courses were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The differences in mean scores related to practical pathology and semiology in the two approaches were not statistically significant, P = 0.624 and P = 0.149, respectively. Furthermore, the overall students' average scores increased significantly during e-learning versus in-person education (P < 0.001).
We concluded that e-learning could be appreciated as a successful method of medical education and can be used as an alternative educational method. However, considering the importance of practical or clinical courses in medical education, further research about the efficacy of the e-learning approach is highly recommended.
本研究调查了医学生基于电子学习和面对面教育的预期学习成果。
在这项横断面对比分析研究中，采用整群抽样法，对 126 名本科医学生在两种不同教学方法（电子学习和面对面教学）下的预期学习成果进行了重复测量。参与者处于伊朗马什哈德医科大学（MUMS）的临床前课程阶段（生理病理学）。由于专家小组的意见，在两个被调查的学期中，考虑了相同的医学教师和类似难度的课程。此外，为两个研究组控制了形成性和总结性评估的难度和区分指数。学生的学习成果指数是他们在一般医学（GM）课程临床前课程相关课程中获得的知识测试分数。
研究结果表明，在所有检查变量中，学生的学习成果在电子学习中明显高于面对面教育（P<0.05）。此外，两组学生的平均绩点（GPA）类别之间的差异具有统计学意义（P=0.022）。平均绩点低于 14 的学生在电子学习后平均成绩的提高幅度高于面对面教育。与面对面课程相比，电子学习后药理学、理论半学期和病理学成绩的提高具有统计学意义（P<0.001）。两种方法中与实践病理学和半学期相关的平均分数差异无统计学意义，P=0.624 和 P=0.149。此外，与面对面教育相比，电子学习期间学生的总体平均成绩显著提高（P<0.001）。
我们得出结论，电子学习可以被视为一种成功的医学教育方法，可以作为替代教育方法。然而，考虑到医学教育中实践或临床课程的重要性，强烈建议进一步研究电子学习方法的效果。
