Reinventing the apprenticeship: The hot seat in the digital era 1

Abstract

Describe new interactive digital teaching methods for medical student education in radiology and evaluate student responses. Third- and fourth-year medical students on radiology clerkship were taught using either film-based "hot seat" format, digital "hot seat," or didactic slide-based format. Digital hot seat included direct projection of full-resolution images and use of digital tablet for annotation. Students completed surveys commenting on each method. Before 2003-2004, comments were available from general course surveys. Only positive responses were made regarding digital hot seat format. Dedicated surveys of teaching methods since July 2003 (23 students) showed 100% gave high ratings to digital hot seat methods (1 or 2 on a scale from 1 to 5), citing easier visibility of findings and ability to draw on images as positive features. Fifty-two percent rated film hot seat method <3, with limited visibility as the main complaint. Didactic slide teaching was rated <3 by 74%. Eighty-three percent chose digital hot seat as their favorite format overall. Students overwhelmingly favor digital hot seat teaching over film-based or didactic slide presentations. Digital hot seat methods preserve the best features of case-based interactive teaching while improving visibility of findings.