:Mrdicul Education, 1979. 13, 129-134
Are audiotapes cheaper than lectures? L. H. S M A J E
AND
B. L Y N N
Dqmrtnient of Plij’siobgv, Universitp C o l l e ~ eLondon, Gower Street, London WCI E 6 8 7
Summary
Introduction
First year pre-clinical medical students were taught about blood grouping and haemostasis using four audiotapes and associated booklets as the sole method of formal instruction. The audiotapes were readily accepted by the great majority of students as a replacement for lectures and those who listened to the tapes scored significantly higher in a multiple choice test 10 months later than did a previous year’s students who had covered the same topics by means of lectures. If booklets are provided for each student, tapes are more expensive than lectures in terms of the time and running costs involved. By contrast, if booklets are sold or made available on loan with the audiotapes, then costs become equivalent when tapes are distributed to four to six average-sized medical schools and become increasingly cheaper as the number distributed increases. Other less readily quantifiable benefits of audiotape learning are discussed and it is concluded that in terms of both costs and effectiveness of learning, audiotapes can usefully replace a proportion of lectures in a conventional course. Consideration should be given to the provision of more space for audiotape tuition and less for formal lectures.
Audiotapes and slides or booklets have become widely accepted as an adjunct to, or even a replacement for, conventional lectures. In general they appear to be acceptable to students and to lead to improved academic performance when compared with lectures (Engel & Wakeford, 1971; Engel et al., 1974; Davies et al., 1977). Assessment is often performed within a short period of the study sessions, however, which may be doubtfully relevant to overall educational strategy, and the true costs are seldom considered. This paper compares the educational effectiveness of audiotapes and booklets in teaching part of a physiology course to preclinical medical students, with that of lectures and considers the costs of the two methods of instruction in terms of time, money and space. The effectiveness of the tapes is treated briefly, as this aspect of audiotape teaching has been covered by others, while the costing is considered at greater length.
Methods
A control year of ninety students was taught about haemostasis and blood grouping by means of two lectures and a practical experiment and was assessed using an MCQ some 10 months after the lecture. Key words: TEAcHmc?/*niethods; *AUDIOVISUAL For the 101 students of the next year, the lectures AIDS; *EDUCATION, MEDICAL,UNDERGRADUATE; were replaced by tape recordings and accompanying COSTEFFECTIVENESS; EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT; booklets. Two tape recordings* lasting about 30 LONDON EVALUATION STUDIES; minutes each were prepared by one of us on each subject according to the recommendations of Engel (1971). The booklets contained diagrams and Present address to which correspondence should be sent: Dr L. H . Smaje, Department of Physiology, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8RF.
*‘Haemostasis’ and ‘Blood Grouping’ by L. H. Smaje distributed by the British Life Assurance Trust (BLAT) Centre for Health and Medical Education, RMA House, Tavistock Square, London WCI H 9JP.
0308-0110/79/0300-01291802 00 (01979 Medical Education
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L. H . Smaje and B. Lynn
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quantitative information integrated with the tape in order to reinforce the spoken word and to serve as a source for subsequent revision. Drawings, based o n the designs of the author, were produced by a medical artist. Arrangements were made so that students were able to book a cassette playback machine at a time that suited them and careful records were kept of each occasion that a student used a tape. Both tape group and lecture group were assessed using the same MCQ, which was not released to the students, at a similar time after the initial learning experience; the tape students also completed an attitude questionnaire without knowing the results of the MCQ. Comparing one year with another has obvious disadvantages but on balance was the most satisfactory approach in the present experiments (see Campbell & Stanley, 1963 for discussion of this problem).
Results
Acceptability and academic performance Eighty-six per cent of the students listened to at least three of the four tapes and questionnaires were completed by 68% of the class, 90% of whom had heard three or four tapes. 85% of those replying considered the technique to be a good or very good way of learning about haemostasis and blood grouping and most students felt that they had learned more (61%) and more quickly (57%) using the tapes than they would have done from lectures or textbooks. Between 20 and 30% felt the methods similar in these respects. Finally, it is worth observing that while our students felt that they would welcome a few more audiotapes as the sole method of instruction, a substantial increase would not be acceptable. Table 1 summarizes the results of the MCQ and
shows that the tape-taught students performed significantly better than the lecture-taught students. Another difference between the scores of the two groups is in their spread. Both the lowest and highest marks were scored by the tape group and the variance of the scores of the tape students is significantly greater than that of the lecture group ( F - 1.88; p
Are audiotapes cheaper than lectures? L. H. S M A J E
AND
B. L Y N N
Dqmrtnient of Plij’siobgv, Universitp C o l l e ~ eLondon, Gower Street, London WCI E 6 8 7
Summary
Introduction
First year pre-clinical medical students were taught about blood grouping and haemostasis using four audiotapes and associated booklets as the sole method of formal instruction. The audiotapes were readily accepted by the great majority of students as a replacement for lectures and those who listened to the tapes scored significantly higher in a multiple choice test 10 months later than did a previous year’s students who had covered the same topics by means of lectures. If booklets are provided for each student, tapes are more expensive than lectures in terms of the time and running costs involved. By contrast, if booklets are sold or made available on loan with the audiotapes, then costs become equivalent when tapes are distributed to four to six average-sized medical schools and become increasingly cheaper as the number distributed increases. Other less readily quantifiable benefits of audiotape learning are discussed and it is concluded that in terms of both costs and effectiveness of learning, audiotapes can usefully replace a proportion of lectures in a conventional course. Consideration should be given to the provision of more space for audiotape tuition and less for formal lectures.
Audiotapes and slides or booklets have become widely accepted as an adjunct to, or even a replacement for, conventional lectures. In general they appear to be acceptable to students and to lead to improved academic performance when compared with lectures (Engel & Wakeford, 1971; Engel et al., 1974; Davies et al., 1977). Assessment is often performed within a short period of the study sessions, however, which may be doubtfully relevant to overall educational strategy, and the true costs are seldom considered. This paper compares the educational effectiveness of audiotapes and booklets in teaching part of a physiology course to preclinical medical students, with that of lectures and considers the costs of the two methods of instruction in terms of time, money and space. The effectiveness of the tapes is treated briefly, as this aspect of audiotape teaching has been covered by others, while the costing is considered at greater length.
Methods
A control year of ninety students was taught about haemostasis and blood grouping by means of two lectures and a practical experiment and was assessed using an MCQ some 10 months after the lecture. Key words: TEAcHmc?/*niethods; *AUDIOVISUAL For the 101 students of the next year, the lectures AIDS; *EDUCATION, MEDICAL,UNDERGRADUATE; were replaced by tape recordings and accompanying COSTEFFECTIVENESS; EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT; booklets. Two tape recordings* lasting about 30 LONDON EVALUATION STUDIES; minutes each were prepared by one of us on each subject according to the recommendations of Engel (1971). The booklets contained diagrams and Present address to which correspondence should be sent: Dr L. H . Smaje, Department of Physiology, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8RF.
*‘Haemostasis’ and ‘Blood Grouping’ by L. H. Smaje distributed by the British Life Assurance Trust (BLAT) Centre for Health and Medical Education, RMA House, Tavistock Square, London WCI H 9JP.
0308-0110/79/0300-01291802 00 (01979 Medical Education
129
L. H . Smaje and B. Lynn
130
quantitative information integrated with the tape in order to reinforce the spoken word and to serve as a source for subsequent revision. Drawings, based o n the designs of the author, were produced by a medical artist. Arrangements were made so that students were able to book a cassette playback machine at a time that suited them and careful records were kept of each occasion that a student used a tape. Both tape group and lecture group were assessed using the same MCQ, which was not released to the students, at a similar time after the initial learning experience; the tape students also completed an attitude questionnaire without knowing the results of the MCQ. Comparing one year with another has obvious disadvantages but on balance was the most satisfactory approach in the present experiments (see Campbell & Stanley, 1963 for discussion of this problem).
Results
Acceptability and academic performance Eighty-six per cent of the students listened to at least three of the four tapes and questionnaires were completed by 68% of the class, 90% of whom had heard three or four tapes. 85% of those replying considered the technique to be a good or very good way of learning about haemostasis and blood grouping and most students felt that they had learned more (61%) and more quickly (57%) using the tapes than they would have done from lectures or textbooks. Between 20 and 30% felt the methods similar in these respects. Finally, it is worth observing that while our students felt that they would welcome a few more audiotapes as the sole method of instruction, a substantial increase would not be acceptable. Table 1 summarizes the results of the MCQ and
shows that the tape-taught students performed significantly better than the lecture-taught students. Another difference between the scores of the two groups is in their spread. Both the lowest and highest marks were scored by the tape group and the variance of the scores of the tape students is significantly greater than that of the lecture group ( F - 1.88; p
