Virtual seminars for medical nutrition education: case example

Nutrition educators are exploring Web-based strategies for delivering course material. This report describes an effort to use computer-mediated communication between medical students and experts. A "virtual seminar" designed to help students apply nutrition knowledge to patient care was added to an existing traditional clinical skills course. There are few models for online nutrition education. Since these efforts are expensive in time, money, or both, it is important to share preliminary findings, including new methods of evaluating participation and effectiveness. Although medical student activity in the seminar was greater than anticipated, the return rate for the online evaluation survey was disappointing.