BMC medical education
-
BMC medical education · Mar 2014
Use of online clinical videos for clinical skills training for medical students: benefits and challenges.
Multimedia learning has been shown effective in clinical skills training. Yet, use of technology presents both opportunities and challenges to learners. The present study investigated student use and perceptions of online clinical videos for learning clinical skills and in preparing for OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination). This study aims to inform us how to make more effective us of these resources. ⋯ The present study confirms the overall positive impact of OSCE videos on student learning of clinical skills. Having faculty integrate these learning resources into their teaching, integrating interactive tools into this e-learning environment to foster interactions, and using mobile devices for convenient access are recommended to help students make more effective use of these resources.
-
BMC medical education · Mar 2014
Practice effects in medical school entrance testing with the undergraduate medicine and health sciences admission test (UMAT).
The UMAT is widely used for selection into undergraduate medical and dental courses in Australia and New Zealand (NZ). It tests aptitudes thought to be especially relevant to medical studies and consists of 3 sections - logical reasoning and problem solving (UMAT-1), understanding people (UMAT-2) and non-verbal reasoning (UMAT-3). A substantial proportion of all candidates re-sit the UMAT. Re-sitting raises the issue as to what might be the precise magnitude and determinants of any practice effects on the UMAT and their implications for equity in subsequent selection processes. ⋯ Re-sitting the UMAT augments performance in each of its components together with the total UMAT percentile score. Whether this increase represents just an improvement in performance or an improvement in understanding of the variables and therefore competence needs to be further defined. If only the former, then practice effects may be introducing inequity in student selection for medical or dental schools in Australia or NZ.