Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Objective Although adaptive e-learning environments (AEEs) can provide personalised instruction to health professional and students, their efficacy remains unclear. Therefore, this review aimed to identify, appraise and synthesise the evidence regarding the efficacy of AEEs in improving knowledge, s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2019-09-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/8/e025252.full |
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| author | Guillaume Fontaine Sylvie Cossette Marc-André Maheu-Cadotte Tanya Mailhot Marie-France Deschênes Gabrielle Mathieu-Dupuis José Côté Veronique Dubé |
| author_facet | Guillaume Fontaine Sylvie Cossette Marc-André Maheu-Cadotte Tanya Mailhot Marie-France Deschênes Gabrielle Mathieu-Dupuis José Côté Veronique Dubé |
| author_sort | Guillaume Fontaine |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective Although adaptive e-learning environments (AEEs) can provide personalised instruction to health professional and students, their efficacy remains unclear. Therefore, this review aimed to identify, appraise and synthesise the evidence regarding the efficacy of AEEs in improving knowledge, skills and clinical behaviour in health professionals and students.Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.Data sources CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science from the first year of records to February 2019.Eligibility criteria Controlled studies that evaluated the effect of an AEE on knowledge, skills or clinical behaviour in health professionals or students.Screening, data extraction and synthesis Two authors screened studies, extracted data, assessed risk of bias and coded quality of evidence independently. AEEs were reviewed with regard to their topic, theoretical framework and adaptivity process. Studies were included in the meta-analysis if they had a non-adaptive e-learning environment control group and had no missing data. Effect sizes (ES) were pooled using a random effects model.Results From a pool of 10 569 articles, we included 21 eligible studies enrolling 3684 health professionals and students. Clinical topics were mostly related to diagnostic testing, theoretical frameworks were varied and the adaptivity process was characterised by five subdomains: method, goals, timing, factors and types. The pooled ES was 0.70 for knowledge (95% CI −0.08 to 1.49; p.08) and 1.19 for skills (95% CI 0.59 to 1.79; p<0.00001). Risk of bias was generally high. Heterogeneity was large in all analyses.Conclusions AEEs appear particularly effective in improving skills in health professionals and students. The adaptivity process within AEEs may be more beneficial for learning skills rather than factual knowledge, which generates less cognitive load. Future research should report more clearly on the design and adaptivity process of AEEs, and target higher-level outcomes, such as clinical behaviour.PROSPERO registration number CRD42017065585 |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-35b6215b4c7945fa9717ca7ed7d677cd |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-35b6215b4c7945fa9717ca7ed7d677cd2025-08-20T02:11:41ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552019-09-019810.1136/bmjopen-2018-025252Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysisGuillaume Fontaine0Sylvie Cossette1Marc-André Maheu-Cadotte2Tanya Mailhot3Marie-France Deschênes4Gabrielle Mathieu-Dupuis5José Côté6Veronique Dubé7Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaUniversité de Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada3 Research department, Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada2 Research Center, Montreal Heart Institute, Montréal, Québec, Canada1 Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada4 School of Librarianship and Information Science, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, CanadaCentre de Recherche du CHUM, Montreal, Québec, Canada1 Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, CanadaObjective Although adaptive e-learning environments (AEEs) can provide personalised instruction to health professional and students, their efficacy remains unclear. Therefore, this review aimed to identify, appraise and synthesise the evidence regarding the efficacy of AEEs in improving knowledge, skills and clinical behaviour in health professionals and students.Design Systematic review and meta-analysis.Data sources CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed and Web of Science from the first year of records to February 2019.Eligibility criteria Controlled studies that evaluated the effect of an AEE on knowledge, skills or clinical behaviour in health professionals or students.Screening, data extraction and synthesis Two authors screened studies, extracted data, assessed risk of bias and coded quality of evidence independently. AEEs were reviewed with regard to their topic, theoretical framework and adaptivity process. Studies were included in the meta-analysis if they had a non-adaptive e-learning environment control group and had no missing data. Effect sizes (ES) were pooled using a random effects model.Results From a pool of 10 569 articles, we included 21 eligible studies enrolling 3684 health professionals and students. Clinical topics were mostly related to diagnostic testing, theoretical frameworks were varied and the adaptivity process was characterised by five subdomains: method, goals, timing, factors and types. The pooled ES was 0.70 for knowledge (95% CI −0.08 to 1.49; p.08) and 1.19 for skills (95% CI 0.59 to 1.79; p<0.00001). Risk of bias was generally high. Heterogeneity was large in all analyses.Conclusions AEEs appear particularly effective in improving skills in health professionals and students. The adaptivity process within AEEs may be more beneficial for learning skills rather than factual knowledge, which generates less cognitive load. Future research should report more clearly on the design and adaptivity process of AEEs, and target higher-level outcomes, such as clinical behaviour.PROSPERO registration number CRD42017065585https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/8/e025252.full |
| spellingShingle | Guillaume Fontaine Sylvie Cossette Marc-André Maheu-Cadotte Tanya Mailhot Marie-France Deschênes Gabrielle Mathieu-Dupuis José Côté Veronique Dubé Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis BMJ Open |
| title | Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| title_full | Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| title_fullStr | Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| title_short | Efficacy of adaptive e-learning for health professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis |
| title_sort | efficacy of adaptive e learning for health professionals and students a systematic review and meta analysis |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/8/e025252.full |
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