Student evaluation of the clinical 'curriculum in action'.

Aim: To examine how students' evaluations of the environment, process and outcome of clinical learning interrelated and correlated with assessment results.

Method: A post hoc study in the 3rd of 5 years in a student-centred, horizontally integrated, objective-based medical curriculum. In the last week of each module, students evaluated what they had learned and how they had learned it using a previously validated, web-based scale.

How can medical students learn in a self-directed way in the clinical environment? Design-based research.

Aim: This study aimed to establish whether and under what conditions medical students can learn in a self-directed manner in the clinical environment.

Method: A web-based learning management system brought 66 placement students, in a problem-based learning (PBL) medical curriculum, into closer touch with their clinical learning objectives and ways of achieving them. Free response comments from 16 of them during the 7 weeks they used it, transcripts of group discussions before and after the period of use, and responses from all 66 students to a questionnaire were analysed qualitatively.