The case for engagement in medical training: Why interactive images and clinical reasoning are fundamental

According to researchers, medical training has reached a stage where students know more, but understand less. Although there are new opportunities to boost student engagement with learning materials, most methods continue to rely on traditional memorisation. However, on its own, memorisation isn’t enough for students to fully engage with educational content and apply it to the real world.

Moreover, many students are working at maximum capacity, training under extreme stress and exhaustion. This isn’t a new issue in medical training, but one that has received more attention in recent years. Plenty of studies underline the high rates of burnout. Crucially, poor motivation and dissatisfaction are flagged as key predictors of burnout.

Missed opportunities to enhance student engagement in medical training could translate into major consequences further down the line. In particular, concerns around diagnostic errors continue to be raised. Trainees need to be maximally empowered to connect the dots before they enter hospitals or labs.

Interactive, case-based learning that brings theory into the real world

In both drug development and clinical practice, practitioners are required to weigh multiple possible explanations under pressure. Simply memorising knowledge won’t prepare them for that.

Interactive image-based learning and clinical reasoning each offer powerful paths to improve engagement and diagnostic skills individually. Together, they amplify one another, moving students beyond memorisation to applied understanding, clearer judgement, and lasting retention. In the following sections, we examine how these approaches, both individually and in combination, translate theory into practice.

Insights gathered are from medical instructors who shared stories of how students learn in real clinical scenarios. These experiences underline the limitations of rote memorisation and highlight the need for interactive, case-based learning that brings theory into the real world. As Elizabeth Gregory, Lecturer of Nursing at the College of Coastal George, highlights from her own experience, having students immersed in life-like situations, such as marking on a syringe through a student response system question, so the lecturer can better understand their reasoning, really helps bridge that gap between school and practice.

The limitations of traditional methods

Memorisation is primarily a student-initiated learning method, but it relies on passive, instructor-centred teaching methods, such as lectures and textbooks, to provide the information. By the time students hit the labs or clinics, they are mentally exhausted, struggling to contextualise theoretical instructions in real-life medical cases. The Cognitive Load Theory helps explain why: overloading students with too much abstract information reduces their ability to retain and apply it.

Similarly, Allan Paivio’s Dual-Coding Theory showcases that memorising images and diagrams isn’t enough; students also need to engage with them actively. Paivio’s theory iterates that pairing text with visuals improves retention only when learners engage with both channels actively. Activities like categorising, locating, or explaining an image are crucial to understanding and contextualising the information at hand.

Passive memorisation prevents overwhelmed and exhausted students from actively engaging with learning materials. They need to get involved with the visuals so they’re prepared to bring that knowledge to the operating room or clinic.

Nurturing proactive and diagnostic thinking with technology

The path forward lies in combining image-based tools with opportunities for reasoning and discussion. It’s a matter of ‘practice makes perfect’, where students are exposed to applying and exploring theories to real scenarios.

Importantly, digital tools are making this shift more feasible, helping educators overcome barriers, like limited resources and time, to integrate interactive learning into large classrooms. Instructors also don’t need to be IT experts to embed these tools within their teaching methods. Crucially, these platforms have not been designed to replace traditional approaches to education, but to augment them for better outcomes and cognitive involvement.

The benefits of interactive, digitally-powered learning are evident. A study from 2018 found that third-year medical students with no prior experience in chest radiography interpretation increased their diagnostic accuracy from 34.5% to 72.7% after image-based e-learning for two weeks. Similarly, another study revealed that interactive clinically-based learning boosted grades by 59.5% among radiology students.

The University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences in Canada embedded interactive tools into more than 15 courses per semester. Students practiced identifying equipment, interpreting visuals, and testing their understanding in real time via features such as “Label an Image” and “Matching Questions”. Instructors were able to preview exercises from the student perspective, set learning checkpoints, and monitor progress more effectively.

Image-based digital tools alongside clinical or diagnostic reasoning are one avenue to building interactive case studies and providing immediate feedback on responses. It allows for a comprehensive learning process that students feel actively involved in, without putting extra strain on already stretched resources.

Translating symptoms into definitive answers

In a hospital, medical practitioners rarely, if ever, encounter a picture-perfect diagram. Instead, they’re often facing unclear information, sometimes in emergency situations, and scans, tests, and symptoms can point to multiple conditions.

The same can be said of scientists in labs, whether that’s testing new drugs or designing experiments. Both scientists and medical practitioners need to translate symptoms or patterns into definitive answers. That requires high degrees of sophisticated critical thinking and strong abilities to interpret data accurately and efficiently.

Training healthcare professionals and trial staff to navigate this uncertainty through interactive, image-based reasoning equips them to make better judgements in high-stakes contexts. For pharmaceutical companies, this means fewer errors in trial reporting, stronger compliance with regulatory standards and, ultimately, more direct pathways to better outcomes.

Traditional learning methods such as lectures, exams, and repetition will always have their place. Weaving theory with practice has always been fundamental to the blueprint of medical education, but technology is making that scalable as demands and pressures grow.

By rethinking the role of technology to drive engagement, digital learning tools are also augmenting critical thinking, decisive action, and better delivery of care. It’s helping prepare the clinicians and scientists of tomorrow in tandem with evolving industry needs.

About the author

Arlène Botokro is head of learning innovation at Wooclap, where she helps higher education institutions and corporate L&D teams implement interactive learning experiences. She guides Wooclap & Wooflash teams in embedding pedagogical best practices and co-creating instructional tools with educators, learning technologists, and researchers. Before joining Wooclap in 2020, her background included roles at Sciences Po and consulting in innovation for the publishing sector. Her previous experiences focus on learning design, educational technology, and digital practices in international settings based in the US, France, and Ghana. Botokro continues to expand her knowledge in neuroeducation through coursework at Harvard University, reinforcing her commitment to integrating cutting-edge research into EdTech solutions.