Background
Recently, new teaching methods, such as internet-based e-learning, have gained importance at German universities. At the same time, however, students see fewer patients with rheumatic diseases during their medical education.
Objective
The aim of the study was to compare the gain of knowledge and the acceptance of the teaching methodology between educational films and patient-related teaching.
Materials and methods
Both teaching methods communicated identical facts concerning representative rheumatic diseases. Afterwards, participants had to pass a knowledge test and had to evaluate both teaching methods.
Results
Patient-related teaching achieved a better increase of knowledge and better results in evaluations than the educational films. The combination of both teaching methods produced better results than any form on its own.
Conclusions
Educational films are suited to improve the practical teaching. However, the results stress the importance of practical lessons with real-life cases and argue against the reduction of the educational capacity at German universities.