Using a filter to improve the chatroom experience in interactive medical education

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology
• Human Behavior Studies

Background:

• Interactive learning tools are increasingly used in medical education.
• Computer chatrooms offer a platform for faculty-student communication and exam review.
• Balancing focused discussion with open communication is crucial for effective online learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of filtering irrelevant comments on student engagement in a faculty-student chatroom exercise.
• To compare the effectiveness of filtered versus unfiltered chatroom environments for exam review in a Human Behavior course.
• To explore the trade-offs between focused and uninhibited communication in computer-mediated educational settings.

Main Methods:

• A computer chatroom exercise was implemented for first-year medical students in a Human Behavior course.
• Two conditions were compared: one filtering irrelevant student comments and one without filtering.
• On-task and off-task comments were rated by a blinded faculty member across four one-hour sessions.

Main Results:

• The filtered condition significantly increased on-task student comments.
• The filtered condition led to a decrease in off-task student comments.
• Students made fewer total comments in the filtered chatroom condition compared to the unfiltered one.

Conclusions:

• Filtering irrelevant comments in educational chatrooms can enhance focus but may reduce overall participation.
• A potential trade-off exists between optimizing focused faculty-student communication and encouraging uninhibited interaction.
• Findings have implications for designing effective computer-mediated learning environments in medical education.