Evaluation of the effectiveness of providing powerpoint slide handouts before the class

Abstract

Background: Many teachers are now using powerpoint presentations as a method of presenting lectures. Hence, unknowingly, teachers may rush through the slides without giving much time for the students. Teachers should allow the students to process the information and to write sufficient notes for their later review. To fill this gap, keeping in mind, the requirements of teachers, students, and university allotted time slots for the topic, one of the remedies suggested by several authors is to allow the access to the power-point slides of the topic either in electronic or in the print format as handouts. Objectives: The aim of this study is to study the advantages and disadvantages of providing PowerPoint slide handouts before the class. Materials and Methods: A batch of 100, 1st MBBS students were divided into two groups with 50 students each by lottery method. Group “A” served as control, and were not provided with handouts of PowerPoint slides of the topic to be dealt with. Another Group “B” were provided with handouts of the PowerPoint slides on the previous day of the class. The study was carried out during a regular class of 1 h. Pretest was conducted only before the class in the form of MCQs. After the class, posttest was conducted with the same set of MCQs. Results of the pretest and posttest within the group and between groups A and B were compared. Questionnaires were provided to get the feedback regarding powerpoint handouts. Results: Results of the pretest and posttest comparison within the group and between the groups showed value of p 0.0001, which is statistically significant. Students feedback analysis showed good positive response regarding the handouts of the powerpoint slides of the lecture class. Conclusion: Providing PowerPoint slide handouts of the topic prior to the lecture would benefit students.