| Sumario: | The purpose of this study was to determine if a computer- aided instruction learning module improves students' knowledge of the neuroanatomy/physiology and clinical examination of the dorsal column-medial lemniscal (DCML) system. Sixty-one physical therapy (PT) students enrolled in a clinical neurology course in entry-level PT educational programs at two universities participated in the study. Students from University-1 (Ul) had not had a previous neuroanatomy course, while students from University-2 (U2) had taken a neuroanatomy course in the previous semester. Before and after working with the learning module, students took a paper-and-pencil test on the neuroanatomy/physiology and clinical examination of the DCML system. Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA and Mann-Whitney tests were used to determine if differences existed between neuroanatomy/physiology examination scores and clinical examination scores before and after taking the learning module, and between student groups based on university attended. For students from Ul, neuroanatomy/physiology post-test scores improved significantly over pre-test scores (ρ < 0.001), while post-test scores of students from U2 did not (ρ = 0.60). Neuroanatomy/ physiology pre-test scores from U2 were significantly better than those from Ul (ρ < 0.001); there was no significant difference in post-test scores (ρ = 0.062). Clinical examination pre-test and post-test scores from U2 were significantly better than those from Ul (ρ < 0.001). Clinical examination post-test scores improved significantly from the pre-test scores for both Ul (ρ < 0.001) and U2 (ρ < 0.001). J Allied Health 2010; 39(3 pt 1):156-164.
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