The Quantitative Evaluation of Educational CD-ROMs

Abstract

S185 INTRODUCTION: The "gold standard" of continuing medical education is the "contact hour". These contact hours are converted to CMEs (Continuing Medical Education) units for physicians or CEUs (Continuing Education Units) for nurses. Virtually all hospitals require that heath care providers obtain a specific number of units over a certain period of time in order to maintain their credentials. Now in the age of interactive nonlinear, multimedia software the process of evaluating the quantitative educational content of material needs to be re-examined. This abstract reports a method of analysis of the educational content of CD-ROM based teaching materials. METHODS: Supported by an educational grant from Arrow International (Reading, PA), two educational CD-ROMs were developed. The two programs, Peripherally Inserted Center Venous Catheter (PICC) and Intra- Aortic Balloon Pumping (IABP) took a total of 400 hours of faculty time to create. Table 1 displays a detailed breakdown of the contents of each CD-ROM. In the summer of 1996, the CD-ROMs were submitted to AACN (American Association of Critical-Care Nurses) for evaluation of CEU content. Fifteen member nurses of the AACN were contacted and all agreed to evaluate the CD-ROMs. Each was asked to complete a written survey rating various aspects of the CD-ROM. In addition, the time required to complete the CD-ROM was recorded.Table 1RESULTS: A wide range of time was reported to complete the CD-ROMs (mean=86 mins, SD=22). The results were compared with a proposed formula: Number of text screens + total Video Length (mins) + 5 X number of Interactive Screens = Contact Time(mins). The average reported time was within 5 minutes of the calculated time for both CD-ROMs. PICC 76+6+5=87 mins. IABP 74+1+15=90mins. DISCUSSION: It is important that standards be developed regarding the amount of material present in a CD-ROM. Unlike a book or video, the length of a CD-ROM can be difficult to determine. Presently the only method of determining the amount of material present is with time consuming and costly studies. It is critical that alternative methods of analysis be developed. The authors propose a formula that takes into account the amount of text, video and interactivity present in a CD-ROM.