COMPARE/Radiology, an interactive Web-based radiology teaching program:: Evaluation of user response

Rationale and Objectives. The aim of this study is to assess user benefits of COMPARE/Radiology, a highly interactive World Wide Web-based training program for radiology, as perceived by its users. Materials and Methods. COMPARE/Radiology (http://www.idr.med.uni-erlangen.de/compare.htm), an interactive training program based on 244 teaching cases, was created by the authors and made publicly available on the Internet. An anonymous survey was conducted among users to investigate the composition of the program's user base and assess the acceptance of the training program. In parallel, Web access data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results. The group of responding users (n = 1370) consisted of 201 preclinical medical students (14.7%), 314 clinical medical students (22.9%), 359 residents in radiology (26.2%), and 205 users of other professions (14.9%). A majority of respondents (1230; 89%) rated the interactivity of COMPARE/Radiology as good or excellent. Many respondents use COMPARE/Radiology for self-study (971; 70%) and for teaching others (600; 43%). Web access statistics show an increase in number of site visits from 1248 in December 2002 to 4651 in April 2004. Conclusion. Users appreciate the benefits of COMPARE/Radiology. The interactive instructional design was rated positively by responding users. The popularity of the site is growing, evidenced by the number of network accesses during the observation period.