Computer assisted learning versus conventional teaching: a questionnaire based study

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONPharmacology is an ever evolving subject marked by perpetual updates. The undergraduate curriculum in pharmacology must be suitable, clinically oriented and helpful in making decisions in therapeutics. 1 Undergraduate teaching in pharmacology involves theory and practical sessions. The practical exercises in pharmacology have been a matter of debate since long. The practical classes comprising of animal experiments were regarded to be irrelevant by medical students, teachers and policy makers since the learning goals mainly involve cognitive domain rather than psychomotor domain.2,3 Animals have been extensively used in the past to demonstrate the effect of various drugs in experimental pharmacology classes in the laboratory.In fact, most of the drug discoveries have been possible due to research involving animals in the past. 4 However, there has been a gradual decline in live animal experiments in medical colleges in India.5 Animal experiments are tedious and have several practical constraints.6 Availability of animals, maintenance of an animal house and ethical clearance being some of them. Due to multiple limiting factors with the use of animals for academic purpose, the only method available for teachers remains the conventional chalk and board type. But such method is not appreciated for practical sessions since the students are unable to visualize the experiments.Thus, there is a need to develop alternatives to animal experiments. Ethical issues in animal use and rapid emergence of computer technology has resulted in newer ABSTRACT Background: Animal experiments have ethical concerns thus practical sessions mean demonstration classes. Incorporation of novel teaching methods in pharmacology is the need of the hour when there is extensive use of computers among students. The present study was conducted to analyse and compare the knowledge gained by students through traditional demonstration lectures versus Computer assisted learning (CAL) sessions. Methods: This study was done on 112 second professional MBBS students after taking informed consent. They were divided in 2 groups viz. CAL group and Traditional teaching group and were taught experimental pharmacology topics using different teaching methods. The performance of the students in the two groups was then compared based on questionnaire. Student's perception on use of CAL was also assessed. Results: A statistically significant difference in performance was seen among the students in the traditional teaching group and CAL group. In CAL group, the average scores for the Rabbit's eye, Dog's blood pressure, Animals used in Experimental Pharmacology and Screening methods sessions were 9.07, 8.3 and 3.8 respectively while in traditional teaching group the scores were 8.4, 7.8 and 3.4 respectively. Similarly, in frog's heart session, CAL group scored higher (7.14) than traditional group (6.79). 76.8% students strongly agreed that CAL sessions were useful and 100% students strongly agreed that traditional lectures are difficult to retain. Conclusi...