Early diagnosis of substance abuse: evaluation of a course of computer-assisted instruction

Abstract

A computer-assisted, experiential course of instruction on early diagnosis of substance abuse was developed and compared to three existing substance abuse curricula for third-year medical students on family medicine clerkships. The experimental course, requiring 2 hours of teacher contact, consisted of three computer-assisted instruction modules, active discussion, role play, opportunities for applying new knowledge and clinical skills, and modelling of clinical interest by a family doctor. The three comparison educational programmes were a one-week immersion experience on a substance abuse in-patient unit, 1-4 hours of lecture, and no formal teaching. For 6 months, all third-year medical students at Jefferson Medical College were exposed to one of these courses, and to the same required readings on substance abuse, on their required family medicine rotations at different clerkship sites. They completed end-of-rotation questionnaires assessing their knowledge, satisfaction with substance abuse teaching, and motivation for continued learning. Groups were similar with regard to demographic variables, academic performance, and previous curricular and extra-curricular exposure to substance abuse. Despite a possible selection bias favouring the immersion experience, the computer-assisted course resulted in higher levels of knowledge on early diagnosis, but similar attitudes and satisfaction. The computer-assisted and immersion courses produced more favourable outcomes than lecture-based teaching and no formal teaching. Compared to no formal teaching, lecture did not produce measurable effect. The results suggest that a computer-assisted, experiential substance abuse course, based on relevant and practical goals, can efficiently augment knowledge and motivation for further learning of third-year medical students.

The development and evaluation of a computer‐assisted teaching programme for intrapartum fetal monitoring

“…There are difficulties in comparing computerised programmes with conventional learning due to a large number of con‐founding factors 16 . However, many programmes have been evaluated and have been shown to improve knowledge 17–20 . This has also been our experience.…”

Undergraduate Medical Education in Substance Abuse: A Review of the Quality of the Literature

“…Of the six studies that compared types of instructional strategies, 28–33 four showed the different interventions to be equally effective in improving short-term outcomes. 28–31 In general, the literature showed the more effective modalities to be active and experiential, such as structured role-play with standardized patients who function as instructors.…”

“…This instructional strategy is easy to scale up to large numbers of learners, which increases its educational impact. 33 …”

Supplementing Lecture with Simulations in Developmental Disabilities: SIDD Software

“…Drawbacks to this teaching approach compared to traditional formats are that it may involve more preparation time, involve equipment malfunction, and create an impersonal atmosphere with students. Despite these possible concerns, researchers have studied simulations that teach clinical problem-solving skills (Chan, Parker, Lam, Mecaskey, & Malphurs, 1987), behavior therapy (Lambert, 1987;Lambert & Lenthall, 1988), classroom management skills (Murphy, Kauffman, & Strang, 1987), sexual abuse assessment (MacFadden, 1989), diagnosis of substance abuse (Brown & Carlson, 1990), and child assessment (Isaacs, Costenbader, Reading-Brown, & Goodman, 1992). Fletcher-Flinn and Gravatt (1995) performed a meta-analysis of 120 experimental studies investigating a variety of CAI (e.g., laboratory demonstration, simulations, drill and practice) used with preschool to university-level students.…”