Impact of Video Based Learning on the Perfomance of Post Graduate Students in Biostatistics: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Education, being a process of knowledge transfer always has advances which are generally on par with the discovery of newer technologies. Currently, most of the education process has shifted away from the conventional black board towards the usage of more student friendly technologies. This leads us to the aim of this study, which is to analyse the impact of video based learning on the performance of dental post graduate students in their biostatistics course. Materials and Methods: A new video based discussion method was followed to teach biostatistics to MDS postgraduate students in 2013 (test group, n=44). The performance of these students were compared to a historical cohort of scores obtained by students of the 2012 batch (control group, n=44) who underwent a traditional lecture based teaching for the same course. The scores obtained by the students in their undergraduate board exams were compared to test for difference in academic aptitude of the students in the two groups. Results: The mean exam score of the test group was significantly higher (66.60±8.92) when compared to the control group (53.48±8.38); (p < 0.001 Independent Sample t-test). There was no significant difference in the overall academic performance of the students from both groups (test group mean academic performance was 61.47±4.86 and control group was 63.19±4.69. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that video based discussion based teaching is more effective in training postgraduate dental students in biostatistics.

Keywords

• education
• advancements
• teaching methodologies
• biostatistics learning