May in this issue

Research writing often defaults to a bland, disinterested authorial voice. But it does not have to. The authors of this study interviewed and analysed selected writings of 21 scholars from varied career stages, research paradigms, and countries. Participants drew on conventional and unconventional voice repertoire. Conventional strategies, like signposting, supported clarity and coherence, while unconventional strategies, like metaphor and cadence, supported distinctiveness and persuasion. An enriched voice repertoire can help both develop individual researchers as writers and widen the range of voices that our research communities traditionally allow.

Lingard, L, Watling, C. The writer's voice repertoire: exploring how health researchers accomplish a distinctive ‘voice’ in their writing. Med Educ. 2024; 58(5): 523-534. doi:10.1111/medu.15298

Self-monitoring is important in clinical decision-making. The concept can be introduced to medical students as insightfulness, safety, and efficiency, derived from certainty in and correctness of MCQ responses. An insightful student is more likely to be correct with increasing certainty. A safe student is expected to have a high probability of being correct when answering with high certainty. An efficient student is expected to have a sufficiently low probability of being correct when answering with no certainty. These aspects of self-monitoring change differently as students progress through medical training.

Tweed, M, Willink, R, Wilkinson, T. Using MCQ response certainty to determine how aspects of self-monitoring develop through a medical course. Med Educ. 2024; 58(5): 535-543. doi:10.1111/medu.15253

Do personalization and embodiment enhance e-Learning for healthcare professionals? This randomised, controlled trial sought to determine if enhancing e-Learning with evidence-based principles of personalization and embodiment would lead to improved educational outcomes among healthcare professionals. Participant perceptions of personalization and embodiment were significantly greater for the enhanced format, as were motivational features of the e-Learning course. However, post-module knowledge was not significantly improved. These findings support application of strategies that do not require substantial effort (e.g., simple changes to the module script and voice-over with a friendly human voice). However, more costly enhancements, such as creating the video clips or using content experts for narration, may not be warranted routinely.

Skrupky, LP, Stevens, RW, Virk, A, Tande, AJ, Oyen, LJ, Cook, D. Personalization and embodiment in e-Learning for health professionals: a randomized controlled trial. Med Educ. 2024; 58(5): 566-574. doi:10.1111/medu.15198

Are medical trainees who cheat inherently dishonest? In this article, the authors argue that this is not the case and that the decision to cheat should be viewed as the product of a person-by-situation interaction, in which case most of us can be persuaded to cheat if there is sufficient justification, opportunity, and reward for cheating along with low perceived risk. They discuss how a culture of cheating and aspects of medical training may enable cheating, and why our response to cheating should include interventions directed at both the person who cheated and situational variables that enabled it.

McLaughlin, K, Weeks, S, Desy, J. Why we should view the decision of medical trainees to cheat as the product of a person-by-situation interaction. Med Educ. 2024; 58(5): 499-506. doi:10.1111/medu.15239