Education, Medical, Education, Medical, Undergraduate, Interactive Tutorial, Problem-based Learning, Problem Solving
Conditions
Keywords
medical education, problem-based learning, interactive tutorial
Brief summary
This study is designed to examine how the type of learning case affects the thinking of medical students in tutorial
Detailed description
Tutorials at Harvard Medical School use problem-based learning with written cases. Students work in groups under the supervision of a tutor who guides their exploration of the material. As students progress through the curriculum there is an opportunity to advance the complexity of the material they are presented with. Video-based patient case studies have been shown to improve critical thinking ratios in paediatric medical student problem-based learning exercises, and time spent on data exploration, theory building and theory evaluation in postgraduate residency programs. We hypothesize that video provides a stimulus that improves cognitive processing and critical thinking among medical students, as compared to working from the text-based transcript of the same case.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALvideo case modality
Patients whose case histories are pathophysiologically illustrative will be recruited, and interviewed on video. Their stories will be edited and divided into sections, and combined with the patient's laboratory, imaging, and pathological reports when appropriate
BEHAVIORALText case modality
Patients whose case histories are pathophysiologically illustrative will be recruited, and interviewed on video. Their stories will be edited and divided into sections, and combined with the patient's laboratory, imaging, and pathological reports when appropriate. The transcript of these video-recordings will form the basis of the text-based case presentation modality.
Sponsors
Harvard University Faculty of Medicine
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 65 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* medical student participating in the endocrine and reproductive pathophysiology course at Harvard Medical School
Exclusion criteria
* None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Overall ratio of deep to superficial thinking | Four 90-minute tutorial sessions | Depth of thinking will be evaluated using the method of Kamin et al. Transcription of each tutorial will be divided into utterances. Each utterance will be coded for depth of thinking (deep vs. superficial). The ratio of deep to superficial thinking by case modality will be reported. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution of learning activities | Four 90-min tutorial sessions | Transcription of each tutorial will be divided into utterances. Each utterance will be coded by learning domain (identification, description, exploration, integration, and application. The distribution of domains by case modality will be reported. |
| Preferences of students for each case modality | 5 weeks | Students will be surveyed regarding their preferences for video- vs. text-based case presentation modality using a Likert-scale |
| Preferences of tutors for each case modality | 5 weeks | Tutors will be surveyed regarding their preferences for video- vs. text-based case presentation modality using a Likert-scale |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed