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Gender and age bias in digital anatomical science education
Author(s) -
Lee Lisa MJ
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.318.2
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , gender bias , psychology , curriculum , workforce , digital learning , medical education , medicine , social psychology , pedagogy , political science , law
In the current trend of decreasing student‐instructor contact hours in professional science curricula, digital resources are becoming increasingly important. The objective of the study was to investigate professional students’ gender and age bias in the evaluation of instructors based on a digital interaction alone, primarily driven by audio‐delivery of content and without face‐to‐face interaction. Four, twenty‐minute digital learning modules on spinal cord anatomy were created with identical content and script, but each narrated by an individual of different gender and age. After viewing one of the four randomly assigned modules, first year dental students’ quiz performance revealed that the same amount of learning occurred regardless of narrators’ gender and age difference. However, students’ evaluation of instructors based on the audio‐delivery of content in the digital resource revealed a statistically significant negative bias against older female instructor and prejudice in favor of young male instructor. Implications of gender and age bias in digital educational environment should be considered in the design of future clinical and educational workforce model.