Does viewing pre-lab dissection summary videos correlate with student performance outcomes in medical gross anatomy?

Pre-lab summary videos supplement gross anatomy courses by helping students navigate difficult concepts, increasing student confidence, and allowing for content review outside the laboratory. Few studies have examined the direct correlation between video viewing and performance outcomes. This study uses performance outcome data from six consecutive statewide cohorts (2018–2023) at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) to test the hypothesis that increased video viewing correlates with increased individual student and average cohort performance outcomes. Total number of views and total and average time viewed were aggregated for all student cohorts with access to pre-lab summary videos (2020–2023). Correlations between video viewing variables and student performance (Pearson's R coefficient) were used to determine if video viewing habits predict individual student performance outcomes. A one-way ANOVA with a post hoc Bonferroni correction was used to compare averaged cohort performance outcomes. There is a positive correlation between video viewing and individual student performance outcomes, and increased viewing time predicts higher performance outcomes. Performance outcomes in 2020 were not significantly different from preceding cohorts without video access, but there was a significant increase in all subsequent cohorts (2021–2023). Pre-lab summary videos are a valuable supplement to anatomy instruction that predicts individual student performance outcomes. While significant increases in average cohort performance outcomes in 2021–2023 are coincident with an observed increase in student viewing habits, video viewing is likely one of a varied set of factors that may have contributed to gains in average performance outcomes.