Impact of Interpolated Questions on Podcast Knowledge Acquisition and Retention: A Double-Blind, Multicenter, Randomized Controlled Trial

摘要

Background: Podcasting is a frequently used mediain contemporary medical education, but there is minimalevidence evaluating techniques that enhance knowledgeacquisition and retention. Adding embedded questions hasbeen shown to improve learning in online lectures; this has notbeen studied with podcasting.Objectives: This study evaluated whether placinginterpolated questions into a podcast improved short- andlong-term knowledge in postgraduate emergency medicine(EM) trainees.Methods: This double-blinded, controlled trialrandomized postgraduate trainees from six EM programsin the United States to one of two versions of a podcast,produced de novo on the history of hypertension. The versionswere identical except that one included five interpolatedquestions to highlight educational points. The post-podcastassessment consisted of 15 multiple-choice questions, withfive questions directly related to the interpolated questionsand 10 questions unrelated to them. Assessment occurredtwice; once within 48 hours of listening and the second twothreeweeks later. The primary outcome was the difference ininter-group mean assessment scores at each time point. Wecalculated a sample size of 67 participants per arm a priori toidentify a significant inter-arm difference.Results: A total of 137 EM trainees were randomizedand completed both assessments (69 in the non-interpolatedarm and 68 in the interpolated arm). There were no significantdifferences in demographic characteristics. Though nosignificant difference was detected at the first assessment, thesecond assessment demonstrated significantly higher relativemean scores in the interpolated arm by 10.9% (95% confidenceinterval [CI], 0.5-21.3%; p = 0.041). For the questions related tothe educational points that the interpolated questions addressed,the interpolated arm had significantly greater relative meanknowledge scores at both time points at 16.0% (95% CI, 3.0-29.1%; p = 0.016) and 21.5% (95% CI, 6.0-37.0%; p = 0.007),respectively. There was not a significant intergroup differencefor the non-interpolated questions.Conclusion: Improvement in knowledge acquisition andretention was demonstrated for those whose podcast containedinterpolated questions. This difference was driven by theimprovement in retention for the material highlighted by theinterpolated questions.