López FAG, Cruañas SJ, Salgado FAH, Lastayo BLH, Pérez YCM

Language: Spanish
References: 9
Page: 218-226
PDF size: 215.65 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: the training of undergraduate medical students in statistics is very important for their professional career.
Objective: showing the fact that using dynamically-computerized tools for simulating and demonstrating concepts underlying the teaching of statistics in Moodle-based activities, contributes to an increase in the comprehension of statistical concepts and improvement of scientific papers designed by these medical students.
Material and methods: all across the second semester of the 2013-2014 Academic Year, some pedagogical experiment was carried out using two groups; one was teaching using dynamically-computerized tools and the other the traditional teaching method. The independent variable consisted in the use of dynamically-set computing tools, carried out using the Moodle platform, whereas the dependent (variables) was the students’ comprehension of statistical concepts and the quality of scientific papers.
Results: the final test showed no significant statistic differences among both classes (p=0,4 › 0,05), even though the number of students who passed the test from the class undergoing the experiment (52,9 %) was higher than those in the control class (47,1%). The experiment-conducted class showed a better quality in scientific papers (50%) as compared to the other group (14,3%).
Conclusions: the results of the final test and the students’ scientific work proved that the use of dynamic tools applied to the teaching of statistics and the use of virtual spaces can contribute to improve learning this subject and a better application of statistical concepts in research.

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