| The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate learning transfer achieved by physician assistant students comparing two instructional methods, human patient simulation and electronic clinical case studies. This prospective, randomized, mixed-methods study utilized first and second-year physician assistant student volunteers taking a pretest and posttest surrounding their educational intervention. No difference was found in the learning transfer achieved between those taught with human patient simulation and those taught with the DxR Clinician computerized problem-based learning case study. Following the posttest, participants completed the Learning Transfer Systems Inventory. The data from this survey identified several barriers to learning transfer. The posttest responses to short-answer questions were analyzed qualitatively and identified few misconceptions and errors of incomplete answers. It was concluded that human patient simulation and electronic clinical case studies using DxR Clinician software produced no difference in learning transfer. Further studies suggested include the utilization of standardized patients in the posttest to have a more authentic learning transfer assessment. |
