Doctors and Distance Learning: Randomized Controlled Study of a Remote Flipped Classroom Neuro-otology Curriculum

A new study published in Frontiers in Neurology examining remote clinical neuroscience education shows that distance learning has the same outcomes as classroom learning for training healthcare professionals.

Dr. Frederick R. Carrick, founder of Carrick Institute and his team at Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in association with the University of Cambridge, Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Macy and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institutes, conducted a randomized controlled trial of contemporary medical education.

The research demonstrates methods and practice of teaching clinical neurology remotely, which has resulted in doctors demonstrating successfully improved diagnostic and treatment skills.

The study also found that the Carrick Institute model of distance learning has the same outcomes as classroom learning for training healthcare professionals. The Carrick Institute provides clinical neuroscience classroom and distance education to healthcare professionals.  This means that doctors can learn to better serve humankind, while studying at home, without the need for travel.

The use of a synchronous online classroom in clinical training has demonstrated similar outcomes to the traditional classroom, thereby supporting online classroom learning as a low cost and effective complement to medical specialty training.

The researchers reported, “We realized that any educational program should be evidence based and contemporary both from a pedagogical and technical perspective. We needed to develop a curriculum that was outcome based with specific goals defined before the curriculum was designed. We also wanted to ensure that our curriculum was designed specific to an outcome that would increase the application of neuro-otology skills.”

According to the full text, “Subjects randomized to the online classroom attended the lectures in a location of their choice and viewed the sessions live on the Internet. A post-test examination was given to all candidates after completion of the course.

All 274 subjects demonstrated statistically significant learning by comparison of their pre- and post-test scores. There were no statistically significant differences in the test scores between the two groups of 137 subjects each.”

Frontiers in Neurology is a leading journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across a wide spectrum of basic, translational, and clinical research that help improve patient care and lives with an incredibly high impact factor of 3.552.

If you would like to review the full text free of charge, please visit Frontiers in Neurology.

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