The use of novel Camtasia videos to improve performance of at‐risk students

Abstract

Students in undergraduate Physiology courses have difficulty understanding complex, multi‐step processes, and these concepts consume a large portion of class time. We hypothesized that online multimedia resources may improve student performance and reduce the in‐class workload. A narrated Camtasia video was created using PowerPoint slides of a cardiomyocyte action potential. Historically, student performance on an exam essay for this topic was very poor following a traditional didactic lecture (class avg. of 64.43%). Replacement of lecture with the online video improved the class avg. by 6.45% and the class median by 8.33% (n=198, 9 course sections). Furthermore, the video appeared to have the largest influence on at‐risk students, reducing the percentage of failing students from 38.2% in past semesters to 24.07% with access to the video. Anonymous polling of the students indicated the video was helpful in visualizing the process and allowing repetition of material. While creation of multimedia resources may require significant instructor preparation time, these results suggest that the time invested is advantageous to student success, particularly for at‐risk students.