Evaluation of radiological teaching programs in the Internet

Abstract

Evaluation of web based training programs, which can be contacted from the homepages of radiological departments of German universities. From June 2000 to January 2002 the 75 web based training programs of 57 providers,which can be contacted from the web pages of the radiological departments of German universities were evaluated in a prospective study. A medical student experienced in using the world wide web examined each training program three times in an interval of six months using the following criteria: availability of the web sites, target group, kind of training program, contents and structure and the technical solution. 51 of the 57 the homepages were fully available at each visit. 64 of the 75 web based training programs which could be connected from these sites were available at all three visits.One program was only partially available at one spot check. 8 of the 75 programs were designed for physicians and medically trained personal, 23 were made for medical students and 44 addressed both target groups (partially more than once mentioned). The number of the presented cases ranged between one single and 3700. In 31 of 75 training programs links to other teaching files were found. A complete presentation of cases was presented by 48 of the 75 web sites.5 of the 75 web sites offered physiological images for comparison. In 20 training programs the pathological changes were optically marked in the x-ray images. A logical and didactical structure was found in 24 teaching files, 14 gave the possibility to check the learning results. No provider made use of the possibility to pass credits to the students or physicians account with regard to official training programs. Multimedia techniques were used in 15 training programs.43 sites used data reduced preview images (thumbnails). The latest update of the site is mentioned in 55 of the 75 web sites. 19 of 57 providers had either no possibility of contact or did not answer to an e-mail. From the homepages of the departments of diagnostic radiology of German universities 75 teaching files can be contacted. There is a great variety in quantity and quality. Most sites offer collections of cases. A web based training program which is comparable in quality to a CD-ROM teaching program could not be found. No program used the possibility to give credits to the users with regard to official training programs.