Perceptions of Undergraduate Students and Faculty about Utility of Multimodal Instructional Approach to Aid Learning

It is well recognised that people have different learning styles and preferences. Students feel more comfortable and perform better when learning in environments that cater their predominant learning style, this is known as the ‘meshing hypothesis’. Presenting material in a variety of modes may encourage students to develop a more versatile approach to their learning, making content easier to learn and lead to improved attention and improved learning.

A total of 60 eighth semester students were recruited in study and were administered Visual-Aural-Read/Write-Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire for learning style assessment; after scoring of VARK questionnaire, students counselling session was conducted; students were divided into groups. Each group taught one topic out of two selected topics by routine method and another by multimodal approach. Analysis of pre-and post-test and student and faculty feedback was done. MS Exceland SPSS used for data entry and evaluation.

A total of 60 eighth semester students enrolled in study undertook the VARK questionnaire. Forty-five students were female and 15 males. Mean age of participants was 19.24 ±.625 years. The majority of students that is 41% (n = 60) had predominant multimodal style. There was increase in mean VARK score on repeat VARK taken after 3 months. The mean difference of pretest and post-test score between multimodal vs traditional approach to teaching was same; no statistically significant difference found in between two approaches (p value.156). However, qualitative data obtained through student feedback revealed that multimodal approach helps retain things better, leads to better comprehension and increased their interest and enthusiasm in the subject. Multimodal approach led to increased understanding of the subject and awareness of preferred learning style made them familiar with their strength and weakness. Faculty feedback revealed that majority of them were motivated to include multimodal approach in their teaching and believed that communication of ideas and information better with multimodal approach.

Study showed improvement in mean VARK score after 3 months and student's feedback revealed that majority have started using multimodal approach which is helping them in improving their learning. Multimodal approach to teaching and learning is useful to enhance better comprehension, retention and made subject more interesting and enjoyable.