1. Marcel D’Eon, PhD 1 ; Damon Sakai, MD 2 ; Kenton Kramer, MD 2 ; Vanessa Wong, MD 2 ; & Krista Trinder, MA 1 1 College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan 2 John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii

2.  The John A Burns School of Medicine of the University of Hawaii has been supplementing their PBL tutor pool with senior medical students.  Generally, no significant differences between student and faculty tutors have been reported in the literature.  Early unpublished research from JABSOM shows high acceptance of student tutors.

3. DAMON, THIS PART YOU NEED TO COMPLETE.  PBL  Student tutors  Two types of exam (with example questions)

4.  Grade comparison ◦ For the years 2003-2010, final marks for students in student led and faculty led tutor groups in both bio-medical science and clinical reasoning examinations were compared. ◦ Independent samples t-tests were conducted to compare grades for first (N = 549) and second year students (N = 425). ◦ Effect sizes (Cohen’s d) were calculated to measure the practical significance of the difference.

5.  Focus Group ◦ A student focus group of six 2 nd year students was convened in 2011 to explore student perspectives on student and faculty tutors.

6.  A statistically significant difference was found for second year students on the examination of clinical reasoning, where students with faculty tutors received higher grades. NM SD Student Tutored10882.44 5.42 Faculty Tutored31784.14 5.19 Total42583.71 5.29 Statisticst(423) = 2.90, p =.004, d = -.32

7.  Focus groups ◦ Students reported that student tutors were better prepared, spent extra time, and created a more comfortable learning environment.

8.  MD tutors provided a slight advantage (d = -.32) over student tutors in tests of clinical reasoning.  This provides some support for content expertise in PBL tutors.  Student tutors were no disadvantage to first year students and may have many unmeasured advantages, as indicated in the focus group.  Further research is ongoing.

9. Questions/Comments Thank you!