Washington University in Saint Louis St. Louis, MO, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
M. Dave Dimachkie1, Brittany Bettendorf2 and Marion Sanders1, 1University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, IA, 2University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
Background/Purpose: Case-based collaborative learning (CBCL) is an interactive teaching method that integrates cases with key concepts. CBCL is recognized as a means for knowledge improvement for learners and consequently has become increasingly utilized in medical education. Herein, our group created a CBCL curriculum with rheumatology and sports medicine content.
Methods: All medical students on a 10-week Internal Medicine (IM) Core Clerkship were enrolled in this study measuring the efficacy of this curriculum. The 1.5-hour rheumatology and sports medicine CBCL curriculum was performed in-person once per clerkship cycle. The CBCL is led by an internal medicine resident rotating on a dedicated teaching rotation.The CBCL consists of several topics, including crystalline arthropathies, osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis, and sports medicine. To assess knowledge improvement, we developed a pre/post multiple-choice question knowledge assessment and analyzed score differentials. To elaborate, students completed an 8-question pretest knowledge assessment two days prior to the CBCL curriculum. Answers to the pretest questions were not provided to the students at the completion of the pretest. The questions/answers to the pretest were not explicitly discussed during the CBCL presentation. Students then completed the same 8 question quiz after the CBCL curriculum. The posttest was made available 1 day after the CBCL curriculum ended and was required to be completed within 4 days of the session. All students completed both the pre/post assessment.
Results: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained, and data was collected from January 2022-December 2022. Statistical differences were analyzed using paired t-testing and analysis of variance (ANOVA).136students completed both CBCL quizzes. The mean scores of the pre- and post-quizzes were 61.4% (SD +/- 23.0%) and 70.6% (SD +/- 19.4%), respectively. The score improvement for the overall cohort was 9.2% (p< 0.001). All medical student blocks had a statistically significant improvement in quiz scores except for block 3 (p=0.354). ANOVA testing demonstrated consistency across the four blocks regarding mean pretest (p=0.284), posttest (p=0.687) and score improvement (p=0.565) with no significant differences between blocks.
Conclusion: CBCL was an effective alternative to lecture-based teaching, and consequently, this curriculum was integrated into the IM Clerkship Curriculum. A limitation of this project was the inability to determine long-term retention of concepts acquired during the CBCL. Future directions of this project may include diversification of pre- and post-tests and obtaining student-centered feedback on the curriculum.
M. Dimachkie: None; B. Bettendorf: None; M. Sanders: None.
