Socrative.Com; An Innovative Tool to Enhance Performance of Undergraduate Students in Histology Practicals

Abstract

Background: Undergraduate medical students require a strong foundation in histology which is an important part of curriculum in basic sciences years. Histology is considered to be a difficult subject by the students. Aim: To facilitate student learning, Socrative was introduced into histology practicals. Methods: This was a comparative cross-sectional study conducted among second year MBBS students (n=146) in histology. Socrative based activity, Space race, was introduced into histology practicals for the entire duration of module-III (10 weeks). This activity was done by the students in addition to demonstration and slide viewing under microscope. Performance of the students was assessed in histology Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) and viva during module examinations. Score sheets of module-I were compared to those of module-III to assess the impact of using Socrative on academic performance. The study was approved by institutional Ethical Review Committee. Results: The results were analyzed using Wilcoxon Signed Rank test which showed statistically significant improvement in the performance of students (P value= 0.0001) in module-III. Moreover, 81.5% students showed improvement in academic performance after using Socrative. Conclusion: These results show that use of Socrative assessment method as part of teaching method, improved academic performance of undergraduate medical students in histology. Keywords: Socrative, histology, formative assessment, academic performance (MeSH words required)