Students’ Perception Regarding Various Attributes of an Effective Lecture in a Medical College

Lectures are, potentially, an economical and efficient method of conveying information to large groups of students. They can provide an entry into a difficult topic, different perspectives on a subject, up-to-date idea of research and relevant personal, clinical or laboratory experience.

The present study is an attempt to know the medical students’ perception regarding the useful attributes of an effective lecture. We also tried to find out the most preferred teaching learning media (T L media) for lecture.

The present study was an observational study. A total of 82 under graduate students of MBBS studying at C U Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, Gujarat have voluntarily participated in the study. A structured questionnaire was designed by peer review and pre-validation to find out the student's perceptions regarding 20 different attributes of an effective lecture, to find out perceived limitations of lecture, and to identify the preferred T L media for lecture.

Most of the students (85%) identified “Gives clear answers to student's question” as very important attribute followed by “Clear and step wise explanation” (82%). Most of the students (66%) liked blending of two media that is Black board and Power Point as most complementing media for lecture delivery followed by black board (20%) and PowerPoint (14%).

This information can serve as a guideline in planning of a lecture as a tool of medical education. It can also be used in faculty development programme (FDP) to sharpen skills of lecturing for trainee teachers.