Teaching Medical Students About Kawasaki Disease: The Development and Evaluation of a Digital Educational Resource

The use of digital educational resources has gained widespread popularity across all disciplines in medical education; pediatrics being no exception. In this paper, we report how instructional design and multimedia principles were used to develop and evaluate an e-learning resource on Kawasaki Disease, which was primarily created as a revision aid for undergraduate medical students.

The design and development of the resource was based upon the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) instructional model. A "People, Activities, Contexts and Technologies" (PACT) analysis was initially undertaken to identify learners' needs, and the 12 Principles of Multimedia Design informed the development of the resource. The evaluation strategy was informed by the Usability Evaluation Method for e-Learning Applications and focused on the instructional design parameters of navigation, visual design and intrinsic motivation to learn.

Feedback from the seven medical students who completed and evaluated the resource showed high levels of satisfaction. Students perceived it to be beneficial to their learning and indicated a preference for an interactive digital resource over traditional modes of learning, such as textbooks. However, as this was a small-scale evaluation, suggestions for further evaluation and how this may inform ongoing development of the resource are considered in this paper.