Bd. Davison et al., World Wide Web program for optimizing and assessing medical student performance during the radiology clerkship, ACAD RADIOL, 7(4), 2000, pp. 260-263
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.