Implementation of computer learning cases into the curriculum of internal medicine

Abstract

Computer-based interactive clinical cases were introduced in 1999 to improve problem-solving abilities in undergraduate education in internal medicine at the University of Munich; the content of online cases was matched with the main lecture. Course credits were given for the successful processing of four cases; an additional eight cases were offered to the students for voluntary use. Only the required cases were used substantially (between 89% and 95% of all students) whereas a minority of students (between 5% and 11%) used the cases voluntarily. In spite of this predominantly extrinsic motivation, most students expressed a high level of intrinsic motivation and rated their self-reported learning success as high. The difficulty of cases was rated as appropriate. This was supported by quantitative data on the correctness of students' answers. In summary, the integration of computer-based cases into a face-to-face learning curriculum should be coupled with the course assessment framework.

Keywords

• case-based learning
• computer-based training
• undergraduate medical education