Usage of Teaching Aids in A Medical College-Students Perceptions

Teaching and learning are active and continuous process 1. Use of teaching aids in medical education technology is swiftly changing from blackboard to virtual simulations and teaching methods range from lectures to integrated teaching. 2 The former encompasses blackboard and chalk with oral demonstrations and verbal dictations, while the latter consists of more modern teaching aids, like overhead projectors (OHPs), PowerPoint (PP) slides, Medical videos and animation clips. The current study was planned to fill the gap and to convey the opinion of students to their teachers.

The present study is a cross sectional study carried out by the Department of Community Medicine, from April 2016 to June 2016 comprising of all the undergraduate students. The study was done by using pre-tested and pre-designed semi structured questionnaire. It contained questions, pertaining to the comparison, benefits and drawbacks of blackboard, PowerPoint, overhead projectors and video animation.

There were 685 undergraduate students studying during the study period. 55 incomplete forms were rejected. Most of the students preferred a combination method over any single teaching aid. It was black board and powerpoint (57%) and black board and animation videos (43%).

Surprisingly in our study the preference of blackboard over other methods was not significantly higher. (53% of the students preferred blackboard and 47% preferred powerpoint. Majority of students preferred bed-side teaching (71%) over video and animation lectures.(p<0.005).

Due to the changes in the medical curriculum and advancement in technology and the new generation learners, students perception regarding teaching forms an essential part for the teachers to mould their teaching to suit the present. Ideally combination teaching aid will be the most satisfied teaching aid because the inherent deficiency of one aid will be compensated by the other.