LONGITUDINAL FOLLOW-UP COMPARISON OF EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONS - MULTIMEDIA TEXTBOOK, TRADITIONAL LECTURE, AND PRINTED TEXTBOOK

Rationale and Objectives. The goal of this prospective, interinstituti onal study was to compare the long-term instructional effectiveness of a pediatric multimedia textbook (MMTB) to that of a standard lecture and a printed textbook. Materials and Methods. A randomised cohort of 89 3rd-year medical students from two institutions were initially eval uated from June 1992 to June 1993 adn re-evaluated in May 1994. Studen ts were randomly assigned to one of four instructional groups: compute r-aided instruction by means of MMTBs (n = 21), traditional lecture (n = 23), printed textbook (n = 19), and a control group (n = 26). After instruction, all groups were tested by means of a multiple choice tes t at the end of their pediatric clerkship; they were given this same t est 11-22 months later. Results. The long-term instructional effective ness of the MMTB, printed textbook, and lecture were the same as that in the control group, as determined by analysis of variance of mean te st scores. Conclusion. The educational advantage of MMTBs observed imm ediately after instruction was not detected 1 year later. Because attr ition reduced statistical power, further research is necessary to dete rmine how education fading affects these instructional formats.