gms | German Medical Science

Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara develops an integrated teaching approach for the undergraduate medical students. In order to evaluate the impact of the new teaching system, a pilot study comprising three modules was initiated. One of them is Biosignals-Clinical Applications integrated modular course, addressed to the first year medical students, with the aim to assess whether a modular medical curriculum would fit students’ needs.

The module was conceived as a four week programme, organised in two sessions: one in March and the second in April 2013. The theme was chosen so that to cover subjects thought in the first year of studies: Physiology, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Biophysics and Medical Informatics. Information regarding pathological changes is also given, strictly linked to the theory taught in the first year. There are four modules comprising 20 hours of academic lectures and 12 hours of practical applications, with the last two days of the modular course being dedicated to mentoring and evaluation, respectively. The modules are:

1.

Neuron

2.

Striated muscle

3.

Myocardium

4.

Clinical exploration

Besides the novelty of learning in a modular way, the students benefit also of different methods of teaching, which are not applied in the regular lectures, such as the use of SMART Notebook programme and of the Smart Response PE interactive response system.

Thirty students enrolled in the 1^st year of studies were selected (out of 60 candidates) for the first session of the course based on a letter of intent and an interview. In order to ensure both objectivity and transparency of the selection process, all the students had to answer at the interview five questions, as follows:

1.

Why do you want to participate in this course?

2.

Do you know what a biosignal is?

3.

Do you know what a modular curriculum is?

4.

Have you ever used the Internet to learn? How?

5.

What are your expectations from this course?

Each answer was appreciated on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, where 5 was the highest grade, and 1 the lowest. The average of the five grades was then calculated for each student, thus obtaining the final ranking.

At the end of the first two modules, an ongoing evaluation of the modular course was carried out, in order to find out the students’ perspective at the time. A questionnaire with ten questions was applied. The analysis of students’ answers showed a good level of satisfaction (score range: 4.15 – 5.00) at the middle of the modular course.

The preliminary conclusion about this modular course is that this way of teaching has the potential to improve the quality of both teaching and learning processes. But the great gain of this particular experience for the students is that they are now able to compare the modular against the traditional education, as they study the same subjects in both ways.

The modular course and this poster were supported by the POSDRU /86/1.2/S/63815 project.