Onotai L. O. FWACS, Tabansi, P. N. FWACP, Asuquo, E. O. MPH
Many studies have shown that students now desire the use of modern technology during lecture delivery which can enhance their overall learning experience. The long-established traditional method of delivering lectures by just dictating notes without the use of teaching aids appear obsolete. This study explores clinical medical student’s perception of methods of lecture delivery in the College of Health Sciences, University of Port-Harcourt. It will also identify the students preferred method of lecture delivery; students lecture needs; highlight factors that affect the quality of lecture delivery and recommend ways of improving the students overall learning experience. Finally, it will serve as a template for future quantitative studies on this subject. This was a cross-sectional descriptive qualitative study that involved medical students in year 4, 5 and 6 doing postings in Preventive and Social Medicine, Medicine and Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology. The duration of the study was 3 weeks from 11th April 2011 to 2nd May 2011. Three hundred students that were present in the lectures of the various classes gave their consent verbally to the researchers and were enrolled for the study. Sixty four were in the year 4 class, 91 were in the year 5 class and 145 were in the year six class. They were administered a questionnaire each by the researchers. The results were analyzed and simple descriptive statistics were used to describe the basic features of the data. Out of 300 students, only 295 returned their questionnaires giving a response rate of 98.33%. The demographic data showed that the age range was 19 to 33 years. The male to female ratio was 1.2:1. For majority of students’ 220 (74.58%) lectures were delivered using the traditional (dictation of notes) method and most of them 200 (67.80%) were not satisfied with this method. Their preferred/commonest lecture need was power point presentation during lectures. Majority of the students 206 (69.83%) welcomed the opportunity to have more interactive sections during lectures. Factors that militated against satisfactory learning were lack of teaching aids, poor learning environment, and lack of reference books. This study established that the traditional method (dictating of lecture notes) was the dominant method of lecture delivery in the clinical medical students lecture series of the College of Health Sciences of University of Port Harcourt. The students preferred lecture method was the use of multimedia Microsoft Power Point presentation. To improve the overall learning experience of the students, the University authorities should address the factors like lack of teaching aids and poor learning environment that militated against adequate learning.
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