Learning Diagnostic Skills Online (German: Diagnostik Skills Online Lernen) (DiSkO)

Clinical psychologists give diagnoses to their patients everyday and these diagnoses determine if and how these patients will be treated. Misdiagnoses can have severely adverse effects. Therefore, teaching diagnostic skills to clinical psychologists is very important during their undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate training. One major problem in teaching diagnostics is that there are too few opportunities to practice with real patients due to legal and ethical restrictions. The aim of the DiSkO-project is, therefore, the development and evaluation of a blended learning course to teach diagnostic skills to (future) clinical psychologists. In order to make the diagnostic training more practical a series of video files of simulated diagnostic interviews will be presented in an online course. These video files will be divided in different segments and presented with questions and automatic feedback. In a second step, learners will make a transfer to a real face-to-face diagnostic situation with an actor simulating a patient. The DiSkO- course will be evaluated in a randomized-controlled trial at three universities in Germany (Ruhr-University of Bochum, Philipps University of Marburg, University of Cologne). To test whether students are equally good in administering a diagnostic interview after taking the DiSkO-course compared to students who took part in a traditional face-to-face university course a noninferiority-analysis will be conducted. Furthermore, diagnostic knowledge and attitudes toward evidence-based assessment after taking part in DiSkO vs. the face-to-face course will be compared. The investigators aim at disseminating the open source DiSkO-course to other universities or institutions of tertiary education in Germany with the aim of improving the diagnostic training for students, better prepare them for their clinical practice and thus improve patients' health care in Germany.

The blended learning course consists of two parts. The first part is an online course with case studies and instructional videos providing basic clinical diagnostic knowledge and the ability to conduct structured clinical interviews. In the second part, learners get to discuss the course content with a teacher, practice their interviewing skills with other students and make a transfer to a real face-to-face diagnostic situation with an actor simulating a patient.

The teaching format as usual represents the usual teaching of clinical diagnostic knowledge and the ability to conduct structured clinical interviews. Also in this intervention students also have the opportunity to discuss the course content with a teacher, practice their interviewing skills with other students and conduct a structured interview with an actor simulating a patient.

Conducting a 15 minute section of a structured interview with a patient played by an actor. This interview is videotaped and then rated by independent evaluators regarding e.g. rules of correct implementation and clincial interviewing skills.

A test of basic clinical diagnostic knowledge developed and previously piloted by the study authors. Using the data from the piloting, two parallel 15-Item versions (A and B) were created, which students answered before and after the intervention.

A test of basic clinical diagnostic knowledge developed and previously piloted by the study authors. Using the data from the piloting, two parallel 15-Item versions (A and B) were created, which students answered before and after the intervention.

7-point Likert scale (min.: 1, max.:7) The following 6 Items from the MFE-Sr were used: Item Number 14: "The content of this course was too difficult for me." Item Number 15: "The pace of teaching was too fast for me." Item Number 16: "The time commitment associated with the course overwhelmed me." Item Number 25: "I learned a lot in this course." Item Number 26: "I would recommend this course to other students." Item 14-16: higher values indicate worse outcome, Item 25-26: higher values indicate better outcome

Website-Clarity, Likeability, Informativeness, and Credibility (Web-CLIC; Thielsch & Hirschfeld, 2019)

A 12-item questionnaire measuring a users' subjective view on web content, regarding its clarity, likeability, informativeness and credibility. The whole 12-item scale and one additionally created item regarding the credibility ("I completely trusted the content in DiSkO") were used. 7-point Likert scale (min.: 1, max.:7) higher values indicate better outcome

The following 3 Items were used: Item Number 1: "The subject matter was appropriately illustrated (e.g. by examples, visualizations, etc.)." Item Number 2: "The course was clearly structured." Item Number 3: "The learning objectives of the course were clearly defined." 7-point Likert scale (min.: 1, max.:7) higher values indicate better outcome

A 2-item scale assessing perceived usability. 7-point Likert scale (min.: 1, max.:7) higher values indicate better outcome

A 4-item scale measuring subjectively perceived aesthetics. The 4-item scale and one additionally created item ("DiSkO is designed to be visually appealing") were used. 7-point Likert scale (min.: 1, max.:7) higher values indicate better outcome

One item using the german school grading system ranging from 1 (very good) to 6 (unsatisfactory): "Overall: I give the course an overall grade of ..."

A 11-item questionnaire measuring the estimated patient satisfaction with structured interviews. Item 1: visual analogue scale (0-100) higher values indicate better outcome Item 2-11: 4-point Likert scale (min.: 0, max.:3) Item 2,3,4,5 and 8 higher values indicate worse outcome Item 6,7,9,10 and 11 higher values indicate better outcome

Each lesson (1-8) of the online part of the blended learning course was evaluated using the following questions: "How much time (in minutes) did you spend working on this lesson?" "How concentrated did you work on the content of this lesson?" "I give this lesson an overall grade ..." "Here is space for your feedback on this lesson (e.g. criticism, suggestions, proposals for improvement)"

Inclusion Criteria: Psychology bachelor students of a cooperating university (Ruhr-University of Bochum, University of Cologne, Philipps-University of Marburg) Exclusion Criteria: previous participation in a diagnostic seminar

All anonymized IPD will be shared with the exception of demographic data which, due to rare constellations, entail a risk of deanonymization of individual participants. The IPD will be made available via the Internet database Psychdata (https://www.psychdata.de) of the Leibnitz Center for Psychological Information and Documentation.

The IPD will become available after data analysis (anticipated: September 2022) and will be shared for at least 10 years.

In order to access the IPD, users must agree to the Data Recipient Agreement and Terms of Use of the internet database Psychdata (https://www.psychdata.de/index.php?main=take&sub=empfang&lang=eng). These, among other things, exclude commercial use of the data, protect the interests of the data providers, and ensure the anonymity of the individuals studied.