BACKGROUND: In order to foster the use of the Internet by our medical students, we devised a virtual test to be taken by the whole class during the Hematology-Oncology course given in the third year. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Through a specially designed home page in the Internet students were asked questions regarding their personal characteristics, knowledge of basic Internet skills and were also given a short virtual course on line on the use of the Internet. RESULTS: We noted that only 53% of our students had used the Internet before. The use of the Internet was correlated with having more members of the household accessing the net (p < 0,001) but not with the student's sex, age or family income. CONCLUSION: Most of the students reacted favourably to this educational experience through which about half of them got acquainted with the use of the Internet for the first time.
Internet; Medical Education
