**5.4 Evaluation of the pilot experiment**

There were 11 participants in both the experimental and control group, with one participant dropping out in each group, leaving 10 participants per group. The control group had an average age of 23.9 years (range 22–26), with 50% male and female. The experimental group had an average age of 23.1 years (range 21–30), with 70% male and 30% female.

The time taken to complete five micro sutures in the control and experimental groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.77). The NASA-TLX scores between the control and experimental group were also not statistically significant (p = 0.60).

The experimental group's overall performance was significantly higher than the control group (p = 0.004).


Both groups had an average "good" grading for the SUS scores (**Table 4**), indicating that the online module for micro suturing has good usability.

**Table 4.** *Results of the pilot study.* The Cronbach's alpha for the SUS scale for the ten questions was computed to be 0.78, indicating acceptable reliability.

Based on the MIQ scores, the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group in the aspects of mental imagery (p = 0.021).
