Peer Assisted Learning Experience as an Extracurricular Activity during a Gross Anatomy course.

Abstract

Multiple medical schools have modified classical teaching methods introducing new tools to improve learning processes 1. Amongst these, extra academic activities defined as out of the curriculum, of voluntary participation 2, and without grading, have been described as activities requiring auto discipline, teamwork, commitment and knowledge 3 as these are mostly carried out by an academic peer. These and other group activities in and out of campus should not be overlooked, as they also influence student performance in medical school. Additionally, peer assisted learning has many benefits, which include preparing students as future educators, improving their communication skills and reducing staff workload.The aim of this study is to describe the effect of a peer assisted learning based extracurricular activity on student performance during a Gross Anatomy course in an integrated curriculum medical school and the students’ perception on their own learning process.Quantitative and qualitative data acquisition tools were used to determine the existence or not of an association between the activity and students summative performance. Grades from two groups without the activities n=162 and two with these n=127 were considered with a total of 22 interventions. Additionally, quantitative data was triangulated with qualitative data obtained from a focal group with the student’s perception on their own learning process.No positive association (p > 0.05) between the grades of each group were found. However, as each exam is composed by a theoretical and a practical component, a decrease in the difference between theoretical and practical grades when peer assisted extracurricular activities were applied was evident. When qualitative data was analyzed, there was a general perception by students that they had less stress levels during the practical component after the activity.Peer‐assisted extracurricular activities show to be beneficial for both: those who attend and peers. Students consider this activity as helpful in reducing other factors such as stress and anxiety that may also be influencing their performance on the exam. However, not finding an association may occur because the students who are more academically able tend to seek out teaching and/or research opportunities and participated at these activities 2. This and other factors need to be addressed and evaluated in order to restructure this tool, so it can be improved in a way it can be implemented and fully analyzed in the future.Support or Funding InformationAnatomy Laboratory, Universidad de los Andes School of Medicine