The Effectiveness of Lectures in Forensic Medicine using chalkboard and Power Point Presentation- A comparative study

Abstract

Power point presentation and chalkboard are widely employed media for different methods of teaching including lectures. Various studies have shown clear cut advantages and disadvantages for either of these. Against this background an experimental study was carried out in Government Medical College, Idukki to test the hypothesis whether traditional media of teaching like chalkboard is more effective than power point presentation for conducting lectures in Forensic Medicine. 50 students of the first year MBBS batch were randomly selected and divided into two groups of 25 each. The same selected topic in Forensic Medicine was taught through a lecture using chalkboard to the first group and power point presentation to the second. An objective test paper and questionnaire were administered to either group after each lecture session to evaluate the marks scored and record the subjective responses respectively. Results were statistically analyzed and compared. Based on the analysis of response to subjective indicators in the questionnaire, it was found that lecture using chalkboard was unequivocally and definitely more appealing to students. However when marks obtained for the test papers were compared between the two groups, the difference was found to be statistically insignificant. In other words there seemed to be no statistically significant difference at an objective level