Cartoon versus traditional self-study handouts for medical students: CARTOON randomized controlled trial

<p><b>Objective:</b> The objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of a “cartoon-style” handout with a “traditional-style” handout in a self-study assignment for preclinical medical students.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> Third-year medical students (<i>n</i><b> </b>=<b> </b>93) at the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, took a pre-learning assessment of their knowledge of intercostal chest drainage. They were then randomly allocated to receive either a “cartoon-style” or a “traditional-style” handout on the same topic. After studying these over a 2-week period, students completed a post-learning assessment and estimated their levels of reading completion.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Of the 79 participants completing the post-learning test, those in the cartoon-style group achieved a score 13.8% higher than the traditional-style group (<i>p</i><b> </b>=<b> </b>0.018). A higher proportion of students in the cartoon-style group reported reading ≥75% of the handout content (70.7% versus 42.1%). In post-hoc analyses, students whose cumulative grade point averages (GPA) from previous academic assessments were in the middle and lower range achieved higher scores with the cartoon-style handout than with the traditional one. In the lower-GPA group, the use of a cartoon-style handout was independently associated with a higher score.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Students given a cartoon-style handout reported reading more of the material and achieved higher post-learning test scores than students given a traditional handout.</p