ROLE OF CASE SCENARIOS IN IMPROVING EFFECTIVENESS OF LARGE GROUP LECTURE FORMAT: DATA FROM UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Teaching practices are being modified over time to more student centered approaches to improve the learning. Lecture being the corner stone of the teaching, need techniques to improve its effectiveness thus emphasizing “learning” rather than “teaching.” One of the main problems with long lectures is the low attention span of students. This study was undertaken to assess the role of adding case scenarios to the lectures, thus improving its learning outcomes. It is a descriptive study conducted in 3 rd year and 4th year students at CMH Multan Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) from 1st October 2018 to 1st April 2019. The focus of this study was to know impact of case scenarios in improving learning of the students in a lecture. During study period, on average two lectures per months of department of medicine, were taken with addition of case scenarios. The outcome measurement of this technique was done by two methods, feedback by the students and peer review from colleagues. There were a total of 61 participants who gave feedback on the lecture. Analysis of feedback performa revealed that almost 64% of students had a low attention span after 20 minutes into a well prepared and interesting lecture. Fifty to 90 percent of students agreed or completely agreed that adding aids like videos, graphics, algorithms or case scenarios etc improved the learning of students. More than ninety percent of participants completely agreed or agreed that the case scenarios are relevant, provide sufficient information, improve learning outcome and serve the purpose. The second part of the data collection was peer review; five colleagues attended the lectures during this period and in addition to filling feedback performa, gave valuable reviews on this. All the peers supported the idea of using case scenarios during lectures. We can conclude that adding case scenarios to the large group lecture format makes it more interactive, improved attention span and keeps attention of students which is difficult to achieve in a class of almost hundred.