EVALUATION OF UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS' LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN GOA: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Background: An increase in the medical student intake capacity from 100 to 150 seats in Goa Medical College during the academic year 2012-2013, led the author to assess the undergraduate Medical students' learning environment with a view to suggest policy changes that enhance learning experience. Objective: To describe some of the preferences of the undergraduate Medical students regarding their learning environment with the aim of making the environment more conducive to learning. Methods: A cross sectional study design was used. Student volunteers from all the three phases of MBBS course were invited to participate in the study and after obtaining informed consent, data was collected through predesigned pretested self administered structured anonymous questionnaires. Of the total 446 undergraduate students from various semesters, 387(86.77%) students participated in the study. Data were entered in SPSS software (version. 17) and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: For lectures 53.7% of the study participants preferred small group teaching (20-30 students). Most (62%) believed that 30-45 minutes was the ideal duration for a lecture, the attention span during lecture classes as admitted by 44.2% was only 20-30 minutes. Most of the students (66.9%) thought multimedia to be the most effective teaching tool followed by traditional blackboard teaching and transparencies. Most students (62.5%) favored the multiple choice question and short question system of assessment. Conclusion: Duration of lectures should be reduced to 30-45 minutes. More of multiple choice and short questions rather than long questions need to be part of our student assessment.