. Akila Prashant; . Devananda Devegowda; . Prashant Vishwanath; . Suma M. Nataraj
Volume 10, Issue 11 , November 2020, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Experiential learning sessions as a teaching aid have been applied early in themedical undergraduate curriculum to improve the knowledge and inculcate research interest. ...
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BACKGROUND: Experiential learning sessions as a teaching aid have been applied early in themedical undergraduate curriculum to improve the knowledge and inculcate research interest. Wecompared the ability of 1st‑year medical undergraduates to answer the molecular biology questionsamong those who had attended the experiential learning sessions of molecular biology techniquesversus those who did not attend.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was carried out with 200 1st‑year medicalundergraduates, among whom 69 students were selected by simple random sampling for thedemonstration of the molecular biology techniques, such as isolation of genomic DNA, polymerasechain reaction, cell culture techniques, western blotting, and high‑performance liquid chromatographyfor 1‑week duration. Student’s feedback was collected on a five‑point Likert sc ale at the end of thesession to understand how they agree or disagree with a particular statement. The content validityrate (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) of the questionnaire were determined, and its internalconsistency was examined by Cronbach’s alpha. The internal assessment marks of these students,valued by faculty who were blinded to their training sessions, were compared with the rest of the131 students by independent t‑test to know the outcome of these experiential learning sessions.RESULTS: On CVR and CVI assessment, all the questions scored more than 0.70 and 0.85,respectively. Cronbach’s alpha for the whole questionnaire was 0.85. Student’s feedback indicatedthat these sessions did complement the cognitive skills acquired for these techniques. We alsofound a statistically significant improvement (P = 0.006) in the examination performance betweenthe students who attended versus those who did not attend the experiential learning sessions.CONCLUSION: Experiential learning, through demonstration and hands‑on experience, enhance dthe learning of molecular biology techniques among 1st‑year medical undergraduates.
