Evaluation of the effectiveness of a radiographic anatomy tutorial

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of computer assisted instruction (CAI) in radiographic anatomy of the equine distal forelimb and also investigated the roles played by amount of tutorial use and achievement level of the user. The participants were 35 (12 male, 23 female) first year veterinary students (labeled "users"). The comparison group were nonusers that were matched with users based on gender and overall achievement in their anatomy class. A database recorded time of tutorial use. Both users and nonusers took a test containing 7 questions relevant to radiographic anatomy. Users gave more correct responses than nonusers on 4 questions. A chi-square analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference on 2 questions ([p]<0.5). Users obtained a higher mean intervention content score (IC score) with a smaller standard deviation and fewer low scores than nonusers. A [t] test did not reveal a statistically significant difference ([p] = 0.056). The effect size was 0.34. Users who used the tutorial for low ([]16 minutes), medium (17-30 minutes), and high ([]31 minutes) total time had higher mean IC scores, smaller standard deviations, and fewer low scores than nonusers. The low time group had a small effect size (d = 0.17), whereas the medium and high time groups had a small to medium effect sizes (d = 0.39; d = 0.43). A Pearson correlation coefficient ( r = 0.066) did not show a correlation between time and IC score. Users of all achievement levels had higher mean IC scores, smaller standard deviations, and fewer low scores than nonusers. The effect size was medium to large (d = 0.61) for low-ranking students, 0.15 for average-ranking students, and 0.30 for high-ranking students. Analysis of variance did not yield statistically significant differences in IC scores for different time levels or achievement levels. The power to detect a difference was low due to small subsample sizes. The tutorial is likely to benefit students, especially low-ranking students, learning radiographic anatomy if used for a sufficient amount of time. Use of the tutorial is likely to decrease the incidence of poor performance in radiographic anatomy.