Exploring the Educational Value of Popular Culture in Web-Based Medical Education: Pre-Post Study on Teaching...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Educational Technology

Background:

• Popular culture's potential in education is understudied.
• Web-based learning faces challenges like student fatigue and attention deficits.
• Innovative teaching methods are needed for effective online education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess popular culture's impact on student engagement in web-based learning.
• To evaluate the use of case studies for enhancing near-peer teaching sessions.

Main Methods:

• A web-based teaching session was conducted for UK undergraduate medical students.
• Clinical vignettes and questions featured "The Simpsons" characters as patient analogies for jaundice.
• Pre- and post-session surveys with a 7-point Likert scale were used for data collection.

Main Results:

• 53 survey responses were analyzed, showing significant improvement in jaundice understanding (P<.001).
• Participants reported enhanced knowledge and memorability using "The Simpsons" characters.
• High engagement scores (median 6) were observed, indicating the effectiveness of the method.

Conclusions:

• Integrating popular culture can effectively engage students and improve knowledge retention.
• "The Simpsons" characters serve as effective pedagogical tools for teaching jaundice.
• This approach offers a viable strategy for professional medical education.