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SummaryThe paper reports on a questionnaire evaluation of the UK-based ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support) instructor course. The trainee instructors who responded were mainly at consultant grade with some senior registrars. The course was regarded as being very effective in achieving most of its objectives and in raising the confidence of postgraduate medical instructors, especially those lacking previous training in instructional methods. This is particularly so for practical skills training. The least effective areas of the course concern small group teaching and questioning techniques. The ATLS provider course is aimed at those physicians who need the knowledge and skills of ATLS in order to perform their duties on a daily basis. The ATLS instructor course is designed to provide approved instructors who can act as teaching faculty on ATLS provider courses. This instructor course is the focus of the present study.The programme of course provision is now an approved aspect of postgraduate medical training in the UK. This growth is partly in acknowledgement of the effectiveness of the ATLS procedures in trauma care and the general recognition among all specialists involved in trauma care that an ATLS qualification is desirable for career progression. There is a wealth of published evidence to show that ATLS courses bring about an improvement in trauma care. Several authors have reported the positive outcomes of ATLS training.2-More recently, initiatives in postgraduate medical education in the UK have meant that all hospital trust practitioners who also undertake teaching and training duties must have formal training in teaching methods. The ATLS instructor course seems to be in a good position to fulfil one element of such a requirement.With these issues in mind and thinking especially of the rapid growth of ATLS course pro- The respondents' rating of the ATLS instruction was much higher than that given to any previous training, regardless of the degree of previous teaching experience. What was rather surprising was the low rating given by such senior practitioners to their previous training experiences.A similar seven-point scale was used to assess the confidence of the respondents as trainers, both before and after the ATLS instructor course.

A list of 57 aims was prepared relevant to a course on educational technology for in-service teachers. This list was presented to 50 ex-students, all of whom were inservice teachers, and to colleagues of these ex-students who had not taken an in-service course in educational technology. All of the teachers were invited to rank the stated aims in terms of importance and the results from non-students and ex-students were compared and discussed. The results showed that while all teachers rated good design and teaching strategy as being more important than audio-visual aids, ex-students of an in-service educational technology course were more positive in their assertions and rated additional aspects of educational technology above audio-visual aids in importance.