'Ten golden rules' for designing software in medical education: results from a formative evaluation of DIALOG

Abstract

Evaluation of educational material has become very important in a climate where there is increasing concern with assessing and maintaining quality. DIALOG (acronym for Distance Interactive Learning in Obstetrics and Gynaecology) is an electronic program on CD-ROM for continuing education. A formative evaluation of DIALOG was carried out to determine whether DIALOG was achieving its educational objectives. The results of the evaluation helped to suggest '10 golden rules' for designing software for the purpose of CPD for medical practitioners. These 'rules' should help in designing future software in medical education. They highlight the importance of content, presentation, design, use of hypermedia and multimedia and reduced cost in order to facilitate appropriate use of such programmes.

Evaluation of different delivery modes of an interactive e-learning programme for teaching cultural diversity

“…Finally, if it is self-contained, in terms of carrying its own coursework, references or weblinks, and commentaries, students find it a convenient and user-friendly way to work. Jha and Duffy [21] give similar guidelines on designing future software in medical education, basing their '10 golden rules' on the results of a formative evaluation of a computer assisted learning package by 150 respondents.…”

“…It can promote self-directed learning [15], and has the potential to present information in a way not covered in 'usual' textbooks [12,16] Comparisons of the effect of digital, live lectures and textbook learning have resulted in similar or improved test performance results, in a variety of different clinical contexts [13,[17][18][19][20]. Disadvantages of e-learning include learner factors such as students being able to skip over areas of difficulty or miss important emphases, and not have the opportunity to discuss or understand areas of the teaching in greater depth with facilitators and peers [21,22]. One way to counteract this is to make e-learning interactive, and designing integrated coursework in such a way that the student has to show understanding of the learning outcomes in their application to a clinical case from the student's own experience.…”

Ensino da bioética: avaliação de um objeto virtual de aprendizagem

“…The questionnaire was made available to participants at the end of the activities of the ethics and bioethics disciplines conducted in 2014, through a link previously accommodated in the VLO itself. The questionnaire addressed categories for assessing VLO that were used in other studies: interface, interactivity, usability, motivation, content, hypertext language and integration into classroom activities [39][40][41][42] . Students' responses were organized according to the Likert scale, commonly used in opinion poll questionnaires for its characteristics of: reliability, validity and sensitivity, with its powerful ability to capture reality being most significant 43 .…”

“…), students gave different justifications. Some said they did so because they considered them "complementary" (Students 21,33,39), others because "the interaction aroused my curiosity" (Students 29, 13) and another was "prompted by classroom activities" ─ "As we carried out an analysis activity in the classroom in which the data presented was necessary to think about the questions posed" (Student 37). …”

The role of distance learning in specialist medical training

“…[3][4][5] In this paper we report on what we have learnt about the practical aspects and difficulties of running a DL course, developed primarily for specialist registrars* in paediatrics. Our course offers an intensive educational programme in childhood disability, but the issues addressed are probably relevant to trainees in many other disciplines.…”