Examination of the Frequency of Resource Use of Second-Year Students Across Multiple Medical Schools
Abstract
Introduction:
Students have an unprecedented number of study resources available to use. A recent study demonstrated a shift in the frequency of student resource use, particularly outside resources (academic resources not provided by academic institutions or faculty), as students progress through the curriculum. The purpose of the current study is to compare the frequency of resource use among medical students across different institutions.
Methods:
This is a prospective cross-sectional study that examines factors that influence outside resource use and frequency of resource use for second-year medical students. A questionnaire was sent to second-year medical students at three institutions: one osteopathic (ATSU-School of Osteopathic Medicine) and two allopathic (Eastern Virginia Medical School and the University of Central Florida). Welch's ANOVA was used for the statistical analysis.
Results:
Preliminary results suggest that students across institutions are using outside resources frequently. We observed similar influence of factors for use of outside resources such as preparing for licensing exams across institutions. However, we observed a difference regarding the use of resources to prepare for course exams. Analysis of resource use frequency between institutions revealed some differences. For example, the use of resources for disciplines such as physiology, microbiology, and pathology was observed. Additionally, differences were noted when comparing the use of specific resources such as transcripts, self-generated student resources, and online resources generated by peers.
Conclusion:
The observation that students across all institutions are influenced similarly to use outside resources to prepare for licensing exams is expected. However, we did observe some differences which could be explained by variations in curriculum, faculty, and student culture. The preliminary results from this current study are consistent with what has been observed in previous studies. Establishing a better understanding of how students use outside resources will enable faculty and institutions to help students develop as self-regulated learners.