World Wide Web program for optimizing and assessing medical student performance during the radiology clerkship

Rationale and Objectives. The purpose of this study was to adapt the techno logy of the World Wide Web to the teaching and evaluation of medical studen ts participating in the radiology clerkship at our institution. Materials and Methods. Teaching modules were placed on a local intranet sit e. One hundred two student evaluations were conducted online as a standardi zed, written- and image-based test that was administered both before and af ter the clerkship. The computer-delivered test consisted of 40 standardized questions that were sorted by category (based on American College of Radio logy code criteria) and randomly administered from a pool of 200 potential questions. Scores from before and after the clerkship were analyzed statist ically to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational program and the stu dent performance. Student case presentation scoring and clerkship administr ation tasks were also evaluated both before and after implementation of the modules during the first 12 months of this project (July 1997 to July 1998 ). Results. A statistically significant (P <.001) improvement in test performa nce was found in 102 consecutive students, and all 102 students (100%) pref erred the digital-testing format. The amount of time needed to tabulate the teacher evaluation, grade the test, and score the oral presentations decre ased substantially with the digital system. Conclusion. An intranet-based method of evaluating students in an ongoing f ashion allows for additional growth in content and ease of use during the r adiology clerkship.