A COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOK AND INTERACTIVE COMPUTER LEARNING OF NEUROMUSCULAR BLOCK

We designed an educational software package, RELAX, for teaching first -year anesthesiology residents about the pharmacology and clinical man agement of neuromuscular blockade. The software uses an interactive, p roblem-based approach and moves the user through cases in an operating room environment. It can be run on personal computers with Microsoft Windows(TM) (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA) and combines video, graphic s, and text with mouse-driven user input. We utilized test scores 1) t o determine whether our software was beneficial to the educational pro gress of anesthesiology residents and 2) to compare computer-based lea rning with textbook learning. Twenty-three residents were divided into two groups matched for age and sex, and a pretest was administered to all 23 residents. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in t he pretest scores of the two groups. Three weeks later, both groups we re subjected to an educational intervention: one with our computer sof tware and the other with selected textbooks. Both groups took a postte st immediately after the intervention. The test scores of the computer group improved significantly more (P < 0.05) than those of the textbo ok group. Although prior to the study the two groups showed no statist ical difference in their familiarity with computers, the computer grou p reported much higher satisfaction with their learning experience tha n did the textbook group (P < 0.0001).