Supplementing an Epidemiology Course with Online Lectures

Abstract

Background: Online distance education is proving to be an effective pedagogical vehicle for enhancing learning outcomes of medical students. Epidemiology is a subject area underexplored as an appropriate content area for online delivery. We sought to determine whether online epidemiology videos were an effective companion teaching tool that could result in measurable improvements in student performance. Methods: In partnership with the Lecturio Corporation in Germany, an online Epidemiology class created, featuring 11 recorded lectures tailored to the USMLE medical licensing requirements. Free access to the lectures was offered to the students of a 4th year undergraduate Epidemiology course at the University of Ottawa. Improvements in this group from the midterm examination baseline to the final examination performance were assessed relative to improvements experienced by students who did not watch the videos. Results: Students who watched the videos saw their average mark increased by 1.2%, while the mark in the control group decreased by 2.6%, though this difference was not statistically significant. Qualitative comments were universally positive with respect to the instructional usefulness of the videos. Conclusions: Augmenting traditional university epidemiology courses with an online video component is an effective strategy that can result in improved student learning outcomes, though further research is needed to determine how best to deploy such tools either in isolation or in partnership with in-person instruction.