Instructional technology in medical education: Lessons learnt

Abstract

New instructional technologies, especially Web-based applications, may play an increasing role in medical education, particularly for distance and distributed learning. As medical educators turn to this medium, numerous benefits and opportunities, but also challenges and pitfalls, will arise. The successful development and implementation of instructional technologies in medicine require an appreciation of the medium's heterogeneous nature, its strengths, weaknesses and limitations. These in turn rely on partnerships with various experts and the early adoption of evaluation. We have summarized the lessons learnt from developing Web-based courses on palliative care in a framework for adopting instructional technologies. This framework incorporates development, implementation and evaluation.

Systematic review of educational interventions in palliative care for primary care physicians

“…Evaluation of learning results in the context of evidence-based medicine using instructional technology should separate instructional methods from delivery technology and should include cost analyses. 71 Key aspects to consider in designing educational intervention research are: learning is contextbased and requires the active involvement of the learner, knowledge is constructed personally by the learner according to his/her learning style and strategies and through collaboration with others, the learner should have some personal autonomy and control over the learning, the intervention should be clearly defined, and the outcomes should measure change in physician behaviour through impact on quality of patient and family care. 71,72 One way to help the assessment of these challenges might be to develop a collaborative research network to conduct multi-centre, randomized, trials of educational interventions.…”

Experience with the first Internet-based course at the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo

“…Freedom of scheduling was doubtlessly the most positive aspect reported, and the lack of personal contact with the teacher the most negative aspect reported, showing that the non-virtual presence of a teacher is still important during training. Other problems, such as tying up the telephone line, lack of oriented exercises, and tendency for losing concentration by some students, led to the conclusion that challenges and pit-falls will arise, and implementation of online instructional technologies in medical education requires an appreciation of the medium's heterogeneous nature, its strengths, weaknesses, and limitations 14 .…”

The use of videoconferencing to enhance student learning

“…When making a decision to use videoconferencing as a teaching and learning method, we are mindful of the warning that instructional technology should not be chosen simply for its novelty 4 and that pedagogical strength should be an important consideration. Our feasibility study suggests that videoconferencing can enhance student learning through realtime interactive discussion with remote experts.…”