The testing effect on skills learning might last 6 months

Abstract

In a recent study we found that testing as a final activity in a skills course increases the learning outcome compared to spending an equal amount of time practicing. Whether this testing effect measured as skills performance can be demonstrated on long-term basis is not known. The research question was: does testing as a final activity in a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills course increase learning outcome when assessed after half a year, compared to spending an equal amount of time practicing? The study was an assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial. A convenient sample of 7th semester medical students attending a mandatory CPR course was randomised to intervention course or control course. Participants were taught in small groups. The intervention course included 3.5 h skills training plus 30 min of skills testing. The practice-only control course lasted 4 h. Both groups were invited to a retention assessment of CPR skills half a year later. Participants included 89/180 (50%) of those invited to participate in the study. Mean performance score was 75.9 (SD 11.0) in the intervention group (N = 48) and 70.3 (SD 17.1) in the control group, effect size 0.4. The difference between groups was not statistically significant, P = 0.06. This study suggests that testing as a final activity in a CPR skills course might have an effect on long-term learning outcome compared to spending an equal amount of time practicing the skills. Although this difference was not statistically significant, the identified effect size of 0.4 can have important clinical and educational implications.

Part 16: Education, Implementation, and Teams

“…161 End-of-course assessment may be useful in helping learners retain skills (Class IIb, LOE C). • Simplification -Course content should be simplified in both the presentation of the content and the breadth of content in a single course in order to facilitate accomplishment of course objectives.…”

Retention of Knowledge and Clinical Skills by Medical Students: A Pro-spective, Longitudinal, One-Year Study Using Basic Pediatric Cardiology as a Model

“…The rise of simulation-based education focusing on the acquisition of specific skills relevant to medical practice has renewed the interest in both knowledge retention and specific strategies aiming at the maintenance of what is learned. A number of studies have shown that concentrated learning and training, as well as repeated testing are able to improve performance related to specific skills, such as those involved in advanced cardiac life support [8,9], advanced trauma life support [10], general surgery [11] and laparoscopic skills [12], drug administration skills [13], cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills [14], central venous catheter insertion skills [15], critical obstetrical events [16] and general knowledge on life support [17], amongst others.…”

Picking the Right Dose: The Challenges of Applying Spaced Testing to Education

“…Similar results in other studies have provided evidence of the long-term effects of testing. 13 In the authors' second course, they found that those who had received the course scored worse than those who had no exposure to the information; this difference was also not statistically significant. This divergence in results is consistent with a topic effect in the second course, where the materials and learning strategy may not have been the right fit to produce a gain in knowledge.…”