POSTER

Improving Oral Presentation Skills with an Interactive Website

Author: Su-Ting T. Li, MD, MPH

Objective: Improve oral presentation skills of third-year medical students in pediatrics.

Methods: Randomized controlled trial. After receiving informed consent, third-year medical students view a 10-minute videotaped interview of a standardized patient and review a printout with the patient's physical exam and laboratory/study results. The students are videotaped giving a 5-minute oral presentation on this patient as though presenting to an inpatient attending physician. Students are then given an oral presentation guide to help them throughout their clerkship.

In addition, students randomized to the intervention group are given access to an interactive web-based oral presentation tutorial. The tutorial gives examples of a "needs improvement" and a "well done" oral presentation based on the case they just viewed and presented. Students are asked to critique the presentations. A narrator elaborates differences between the "needs improvement" and "well done" oral presentation.

At the end of week 7 of the pediatric clerkship, both groups are videotaped giving a 5-minute oral presentation after viewing a different standardized patient interview. Both groups then complete a survey on the usefulness of the overall experience and the web-based tutorial and provide some demographic information. Videotaped oral presentations are rated using an oral presentation evaluation instrument.

Results/Conclusions: An interactive website may be a useful way to improve oral presentation skills - the randomized controlled trial is still in progress.