A Three-year Study of Lecture Multimedia Utilization in the Medical Curriculum: Associations with Performances in the Basic Sciences

This study assesses the frequency with which medical students access video and audio files of lectures in the basic sciences and attempts to determine if the use of such multimedia is associated with examination performance. Data from nine separate courses were analyzed over a three-year period. Students were required to log into the server, which recorded the date and time that specific multimedia files were accessed. The server logs were entered into an Excel spreadsheet, sorted according to student identification numbers and the frequencies of downloads and viewings tabulated by course and lecture. The scores received in each course by individual students were entered before deleting the identification number to preserve anonymity. The data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation for the sample and one-way analysis of variance. Students viewed lecture videos more frequently than they downloaded the audio files, with the overall ratio of video viewings to audio downloads being 2.5:1. The majority of students (64–78%) accessed relatively few video and audio files of lectures (<10%), trends that were consistently seen in all courses. There were significant correlations for the frequency with which individual students viewed videos of lectures regardless of the course. The patterns for distribution of lecture videos viewed were similar from year-to-year and were unaffected by the elimination of course handouts. Finally, there was an inverse trend between the frequency with which students viewed videos of lectures and their performance in the courses as reflected in their final grades. We found that a small percentage (<10%) of all students regularly use lecture multimedia (audio and video), and results suggest that those students who perform less well on assessments use these multimedia resources to a greater extent. © 2011, Springer International Publishing.