The impact of Video Assisted learning (VAL) on slow learners

Background: Every medical graduate after completion of his course is posted in the emergency room where he/she faces many chest emergencies. In some chest emergencies a small intervention can be life-saving. In view of evidence based clinical practice every medical graduate should be confident to diagnose chest emergencies (e.g. Tension pneumothorax, massive pleural effusion, periodical effusion etc.) on radiographs, where an immediate intervention is necessary. Video Assisted learning (VAL) improves the performance of learners as it addresses a variety of learning styles. Video can be as good as an instructor in communicating facts or demonstrating procedures to assist in mastery learning where a student can view complex clinical or mechanical procedures as many times as they need to. In this study the advantages of video assisted learning would be used to enhance the academic output of learners. Method : 60 medical students of 6th semester were exposed to video assisted learning after traditional didactic lecture teaching on chest emergencies in the discipline of Radiology. Pretest OSCE was conducted in the form of interpretation of chest radiographs and post test OSCE was conducted after the intervention (VAL) Results: The average pretest score was 25.2 (31.5%) and average post test score was 48.15(60.18%). Based on the pretest scores, students were divided into three groups, i.e. Top one-third students, Middle one-third students and Bottom one-third students (i.e. slow learners). The pretest and post test results were compared as mean scores of the groups, with Paired t test. The difference in the scores was found to be statistically significant in all the groups (p value less than 0.001). The students perceived VAL as a good instructor which improves the understanding of complex case scenarios. Conclusion: Video assisted learning is an effective medium for teaching learning in graduate medical education.