title: The impact of the Virtual Ophthalmology Clinic on medical students' learning: a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Virtual Ophthalmology Clinic (VOC) is an interactive web-based teaching module, with special emphasis on history taking and clinical reasoning skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of VOC on medical students' learning.
  
  
  METHODS
  A randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with medical students from the University of Sydney (n=188) who were randomly assigned into either an experimental (n=93) or a control group (n=95). A pre- and post-test and student satisfaction questionnaire were administered. Twelve months later a follow-up test was conducted to determine the long-term retention rate of graduates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a statistically significant (P<0.001) within-subject improvement pre- to post rotation in the number of correctly answered questions for both the control and experimental groups (mean improvement for control 10%, 95% CI 1.3-2.6, and for experimental 17.5%, 95% CI 3.0-4.0). The improvement was significantly greater in the experimental group (mean difference in improvement between groups 7.5%, 95% CI 0.8-2.3, P<0.001). At 12 months follow-up testing, the experimental group scored on average 1.6 (8%) (95%CI 0.4 to 2.7, P=0.007) higher than the controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  On the basis of a statistically significant improvement in academic performance and highly positive student feedback, the implementation of VOC may provide a means to address challenges to ophthalmic learning outcomes in an already crowded medical curriculum.
authors.affiliation: 1] Save Sight Institute, Discipline of Ophthalmology, Sydney Medical School, Sydney Eye Hospital Campus, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia [2] Medical Education Unit, School of Medicine, The University of Western Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Succar
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zebington
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Billson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Byth
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barrie
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McCluskey
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grigg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000379:methods*; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D009517:New South Wales; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult