title: E-learning and deliberate practice for oral case presentation skills: a randomized trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Oral case presentations are critical for patient care and student assessment. The best method to prepare early medical students for oral presentations is unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to develop and evaluate a curriculum of on-line learning and deliberate practice to improve pre-clinical students' case presentation skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed a web-based, interactive curriculum emphasizing conciseness and clinical reasoning. Using a waitlist control design, we randomly assigned groups of second-year students to receive the curriculum in December 2010 or in April 2011. We evaluated their presentations at three time points. We also examined the performance of an untrained class of students as a historical comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We evaluated 132 second-year medical students at three time points. After the curriculum, mean scores of the intervention students improved from 60.2% to 70.1%, while scores of the waitlist control students improved less, from 61.8% to 64.5% (p < 0.01 for between-group difference in improvement). Once all students had received the curriculum, mean scores for the intervention and waitlist control students rose to 77.8% and 78.4%, respectively, compared to 68.1% for the untrained comparison students (p < 0.0001 compared to all curriculum students).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An on-line curriculum followed by deliberate practice improved students' oral presentation skills.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, USA. h-heiman@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Heather L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Heiman
authors.forename: Toshiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uchida
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Butter
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Stephen D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Persell
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pribaz
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: McGaghie
authors.forename: Gary J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000193:education*; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D020407:Internet; D007858:Learning; D013060:Speech