A03: Development of Domain-Specific Critical Online Reasoning (DOM-COR) Skills in Medical Students during Their Preclinical Studies

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Given the recent changes in the medical information landscape, such as the emergence of data-intensive precision medicine, medical education faces the challenge of equipping students with the necessary skills to navigate this information landscape and make well-reasoned decisions. Developing critical online reasoning (COR) skills as part of medical studies is therefore essential – such skills are critical when students use the Internet to retrieve information about patient cases and solve professional (e.g. diagnostical) problems. A lack of domain-specific (DOM-)COR skills may lead to acquisition of misconceptions or misapplication of knowledge, ultimately compromising patient safety. To foster medical students’ DOM-COR through training interventions, the appropriate skills must first be validly assessed. Building on previous research, A03 aims to develop valid assessments to (1) adequately describe DOM-COR in medical students, (2) predict DOM-COR development during academic studies, and (3) predict learning outcomes. Scenario-based tasks will be used to validly measure three DOM-COR cognitive skill facets: searching for online information; critical evaluation of the information; evidence-based reasoning and synthesizing of the information. A longitudinal study over the first three years of medical studies will examine the effects of the medical curriculum on the development of DOM-COR skills based on a random sample of n=300 medical students, with n=300 physics students serving as a comparison group. Using Internet-based tasks as well as Internet-like simulation-based tasks, we will investigate the impact of the medical curriculum by assessing which courses and research-related activities students specifically take during their studies. We will also consider other key influencing factors (e.g., individual learning prerequisites and interactions with specific properties of DOM-COR tasks or online materials used). A03 will generate evidence on how medical students’ DOM-COR skills develop longitudinally. We will clarify which role the curriculum and used learning opportunities play during studies, and which impact key personal and contextual factors have in this regard. We will further clarify to what extent DOM-COR skill profiles can be found in medical students. Finally, the question of how crucial DOM-COR skills are for medical study success will be answered. Results should substantiate a 2nd research phase in which targeted (and possibly adaptive) interventions will be developed to foster medical DOM-COR skills. The unique data set generated in A03 will allow for comprehensive cross-project interdisciplinary data analyses by providing (a) psychometric data on DOM-COR performance of medical (and physics) students, (b) data of online materials used by the students – analyzed as ‘information landscapes' in detail in B-projects, and (c) DOM-COR process data in the form of log files–analyzed in detail in C-projects.