Virtual Learning Environment for Dermatology Education

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. The electronic resources available for educational use have rapidly developed in recent years, thus increasing the use of new assessment and evaluative pedagogical models. Pre- and post-course testing using a virtual learning environment (VLE) can be useful for analyzing student learning, as well as for evaluating the course itself. This study aimed to identify and evaluate the use by the students of a VLE assessment model as part of a dermatology course at the School of Medical Sciences (SMS) - UNICAMP and to evaluate the course itself.The research sample included 145 students who were enrolled in the medical degree program in 2015 and 2016. The data was obtained using the Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (MOODLE) platform, an identification tool containing 10 questions called "Knowing You" and a bank of 80 multiple-choice questions with a similar level of difficulty that had been previously analyzed by residents and dermatology professors. Evaluations were conducted before the beginning of the module (pre-test), shortly after the dermatological practicum (post-test) and at the end of the module (final test). Among the students invited to participate in the study, 81.38% responded to the "Knowing You" questionnaire, and the majority of students displayed good or reasonable knowledge of technology and preferred to study alone at night. Only 2.6% of the students used the VLE. During the assessment step, 50.34% of the participants completed all three tests. The post-practicum test scores were higher than those of the final-module test, which in turn were higher than the pre-module test scores. The analysis was adjusted for the groups in regard to the completion time of the partial post-practicum test. Varying time did not influence the test results among different classes (p=0.7456) or among other groups (p=0.9073).The method enabled the creation of tests with a similar degree of difficulty as no significant difference was observed between the groups and students. We observed that few of the students in the medical course at SMS - UNICAMP used the VLE and that the system of assessment was useful for documenting the module learning.The results also induced changes in the learning model used in the discipline of dermatology, with the goal of better knowledge retention by the end of the module. Therefore, it may be beneficial for students, professors, educational institutions, and development agencies to re-examine their use of VLEs in dermatology education. Questions submitted by dermatology professors from other well-recognized medical schools can be added to the question pool. Thus, this method can also allow for an external evaluation of the discipline or the school.