Background

As online learning develops an increasingly important role in medical education, new online teaching modalities are arising all the time. One such teaching modality that is gaining popularity among medical students is the "inked" video, a type of animated video that utilizes a virtual blackboard. Student reviews suggest that the dynamic style of the inked video allows it to teach more efficiently than traditional teaching modalities, but currently there is no quantitative evidence to support or guide the use of this teaching modality.

Hypothesis

When compared to the traditional recorded PowerPoint lecture, online inked videos teach the same pathophysiology concepts to pre-clerkship medical students in a shorter amount of time.

Method

A randomized, crossover-design study was conducted with second-year medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (n = 22). Students were randomized to 2 groups. Each group received 2 lessons on 2 different pathophysiology topics: one via a shorter inked video and the other via a longer recorded PowerPoint lecture. Two sets of dependent variables were used to test modality effects: immediate post-tests scores and delayed retention post-test scores. A perceptions survey was also administered to assess student preferences between the 2 teaching modalities.

Results

Students performed similarly on immediate and delayed post-tests for the shorter inked videos and the longer recorded PowerPoint lectures (P > .05). Students reported greater engagement (P < .05) and greater satisfaction with learning (P < .05) with the inked videos than the recorded PowerPoint lectures.

Conclusions

This study, although limited by its small-scale and single-institution design, provides preliminary evidence that online inked videos may be a more efficient and non-inferior alternative to recorded PowerPoint lectures.

Educational interventions are a critical feature of antimicrobial stewardship programs. Most of these interventions target practicing physicians whose prescribing habits are usually difficult to influence. Consequently, there has been increasing interest in familiarizing early learners with the principles of antimicrobial stewardship. However, there is limited data regarding the utility of active learning interventions, such as team-based learning (TBL), for this purpose. In this article, we report the results of a post-course survey eliciting the opinions of the 168 second year medical students who completed the first implementation of a modified TBL course on antimicrobial stewardship. The course consisted of two 120-min modules, each of which guided participant students through most of the characteristic stages of TBL. The post-course survey was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. In general, students found the readiness assurance testing, application activity, and team dynamics of TBL effective and the webcasts, used for pre-class preparation, ineffective. This study offers a first glimpse into the attitudes of pre-clinical medical students toward TBL as a strategy for introducing antimicrobial stewardship. It can serve as a roadmap for educators contemplating the implementation of a similar program at their institution and as a launching pad for research on the effects of this type of intervention on physician prescribing habits.