Evaluation of Efficacy of Tutorials in Pharmacology for 2ndyear undergraduate Medical Students in India

Abstract

Background: Tutorial is a group discussion among the students moderated by a teaching faculty followed by a short test. Objectives: This study was done to assess the efficacy of tutorial in comparison with self-study in terms of immediate performance, in 2nd year undergraduate medical students in Pharmacology at Christian Medical College, Vellore and to assess student’s satisfaction and perspective using feedback questionnaire. Materials and methods: Students were randomized into 2 groups: Group A (48 students) underwent tutorials and Group B (50 students) did self-study for the same topic in pharmacology. At the end of intervention, both groups underwent theory exam with same question paper. On a cross-over basis, this process was done for a total of 4 times. Analysis was done with the marks using ‘R’ program to find difference in performances. Unpaired comparison was done for every session and paired comparison was done for average scores at the end of the study and p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: 3 out of 4 sessions conducted showed significant improvement with tutorials. Also in paired comparison, there was significant improvement in student performance (self-study vs. tutorials, mean 51.49 vs. 58.46, p=0.001). Interestingly the low-performers (on the basis of past marks) benefitted lot from tutorials (p=0.002) rather than high-performers, 90.41% students agreed for the usefulness of tutorials and 76.71% were willing to make it compulsory in the curriculum. Conclusion: Tutorials have proved to be extremely effective in improving short-term outcome especially for the low performers in Pharmacology in 2nd year undergraduate medical curriculum.