Impact on the dermatology educational experience of medical students with the introduction of online teaching support modules to help address the reduction in clinical teaching.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: With increasing medical student numbers and decreasing clinical teaching opportunities, there has been a need to develop alternative learning resources. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a new dermatology online teaching resource, from a student perspective.

METHODS: The Australasian College of Dermatologists developed an undergraduate dermatology curriculum and subsequently created online teaching modules in partnership with the University of Sydney. These modules were introduced to final year medical students at the University of Western Australia in 2010. The dermatology learning experiences of these 142 students were compared with the 2009 medical student cohort who did not have access to this resource. A self-administered questionnaire, with a 5-point rating scale, was used.

RESULTS: The 2010 cohort described an improved educational experience using the online modules. Despite a reduction in the number of clinics attended, knowledge and skills gained were scored higher among the 2010 cohort. The student's confidence in their ability to manage common dermatological conditions was also statistically higher in the cohort with the online teaching resource. The learning experience for dermatology compared to other subspecialty teaching in medical school was ranked as a significantly more positive experience in the 2010 cohort.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the introduction of the online modules described in this paper to support learning have improved the perceived educational experience of medical students and should be incorporated as a way to improve student teaching in the face of reduced clinic teaching.