Abstract
Recent years have witnessed the developments of different educational methods in the medical field, including the electronic learning (e-learning) and wed problem-based learning (WPBL) approach. These methods are coming in favour over the traditional learning method, which was a dominated educational method for decades. Here we assess different educational methods in Medical School at Taibah University, KSA. Methods: This is an experimental control study that has been carried out over 2 academic years in the Faculty of Medicine, Taibah University, KSA. A 162 students from the 5th year of Medical School were involved in the study. Students were studying Family Medicine course as a block over 10 weeks. Students were randomly divided into 3 groups: (i) Group A, (46 students) studied the course by WPBL, (ii) Group B, (49 students) studied the course by WPBL with e-portfolio, and (iii) Group C, (67 students) studied the course with traditional learning. To measure the efficacy of different teaching methods, the outcome of the final total score (measuring knowledge and clinical skills), the score of problem solving/critical thinking exam, and the total DREEM score (measuring the education environment) were assessed. In addition, the different DREEM elements were also assessed. Data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) program. ANOVA test was used to compare different groups with post Hoc analysis (bonferroni) as multi-comparison test with significant level (P<0.05). The study was funded by the deanship of scientific research, Taibah University, KSA. Results: All groups were matched for sex and age (P value>0.05), The results of assessing different teaching methods showed that Group B has the highest score for problem solving/critical thinking exam (max 100) and total DREEM score (max 200) with mean 84.79 +/- 3.45 and 110.46 +/- 13.82, respectively. Whereas, Group C showed the lowest score for problem solving/critical thinking exam and total DREEM score with mean 76.97 +/- 3.79 and 101.97 +/- 15.89, respectively. Comparing means among different groups A, B, and C using ANOVA test showed a significant differences among different groups with P value<0.05. The results from the final exam score (max 100) showed that Group A has the highest score (mean 70 +/- 4.51) and Group C has the lowest score (mean 73.57 +/- 5.31) with significant difference among different groups (P value 0.011).
Multi-comparison test-post Hoc analysis showed that there is a significant difference between group B and C (P value=0.014) in the total DREEM score, and there is a highly significant difference between group A and C (P value=0.000) for problem solving/critical thinking exam. Discussion: Here we showed that the web problem based learning has better outcomes compared to traditional learning regarding problem solving, critical thinking skills, retention of knowledge, in addition to the overall educational environment.. Moreover, the present work showed that student's who studied the family medicine course with WPBL method either with or without e-portfolio have better perception of almost all educational environmental elements these results are similar to studies in both medical and nonmedical literature.