Research 101: An online course introducing medical students to research

Research is an important aspect of many medical students' training. However, many medical students are not required to complete a scholarly project, and formal research training is often fragmented across the medical school curriculum. Thus, we developed an online, structured, asynchronous set of modules to introduce trainees to multiple topics relevant to the conduct of research.

Research 101 was piloted by 27 first-year medical students at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Students' knowledge, confidence, and satisfaction were assessed using a final quiz and pre- and post-module surveys with five-point Likert-scaled questions and open-ended text responses.

Pre-module survey results showed that learners felt most confident in Conducting a literature search and least confident in Submitting an Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol at UC. Post-module mean scores were significantly increased compared to pre-module results for all modules and questions (P < 0.05). The response to "The content of this module met my needs" was high across all modules with 236 (84.0%) "yes" responses. Thematic analysis of open-ended text responses from post-module surveys identified several improvements to individual modules and to the overall structure of Research 101. A final quiz of 25 multiple choice questions covering content from all required modules was required. The median score was 21.

Comparison of post-module to pre-module survey scores provided clear evidence of improved learning across all topics. The modules developed were responsive to the students' needs, and students provided additional improvements for subsequent iterations of Research 101.