Comparison of remote learning methods to on-site teaching -randomized, controlled trial

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Digital Learning Technologies
• Pediatric Respiratory Medicine

Background:

• The increasing digitalization necessitates novel online teaching and learning strategies for healthcare education.
• Limited scientific evidence exists on the effectiveness of new online pedagogical methods compared to traditional approaches.
• This study addresses the need to evaluate online learning efficacy in training healthcare students to diagnose pediatric breathing difficulties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the learning outcomes of online teaching methods versus traditional classroom teaching.
• To assess the efficacy of different online formats (live-stream, podcast, vodcast) in pediatric respiratory diagnosis training.
• To evaluate the long-term retention of knowledge acquired through various teaching modalities.

Main Methods:

• A randomized trial involving 301 medical and nursing students (2021-2022).
• Four teaching groups: classroom (live), live-stream, podcast (audio recording), and vodcast (video recording).
• A 45-minute lesson on recognizing pediatric breathing difficulties was delivered identically across groups, followed by online tests at baseline, immediately post-teaching, and five weeks later.

Main Results:

• All groups showed significant improvement in test scores post-teaching.
• Video learning (vodcast) and live classroom teaching yielded comparable final test scores, outperforming audio podcasts.
• The improvement in scores was significantly greater in the vodcast and live groups compared to the podcast group, with no significant differences between other comparisons.

Conclusions:

• Online teaching methods, particularly video-based learning, can achieve learning outcomes comparable to traditional classroom instruction.
• Vodcast (video recording) emerges as an effective online modality for teaching pediatric breathing difficulty diagnosis.
• Audio-only online methods may be less effective for this specific clinical skill acquisition compared to visual or live instruction.