Purpose
Because of curricular shortening at Texas Tech HSC-Lubbock, supplemental learning tools were developed to help students cope with content density. To enhance the retention and comprehension of instructor-taught material, short 4-10-minute videos (using a YouTube private channel) that summarized lecture material were made along with quizzes about these videos. Student usage metrics, performance on a summative exam, and satisfaction with the resource will be described.
Methods
Short 4-10-minute YouTube videos were made covering the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Medical Genetics topics of Unit 2 in our ""General Principles"" block and 8 quizzes were made covering the topics discussed in these short YouTube videos. Metrics of student usage of both faculty- and YouTube videos were examined. Also, performance on quiz questions related to those on the unit summative exam was compared. A post-block survey assessing satisfaction with this project will be conducted.
Results
Over the course of the 13-day period, there were a total of 1009 views across the 14 videos resulting in a total watch time of 61.8 hours amongst 106 unique viewers. The average short video length was 8 minutes (faculty lecture=63 minutes), the average number of views was 72 (faculty views=109), and the average time per view was about half its total length (3.67 minutes; faculty=30 minutes). In general, faculty videos were viewed at the time of the live presentation while the short videos were used to review for the exam. Students scored an average of 8 percentage points higher than the previous year on exam questions covered in the short quizzes.
Conclusion
Preliminary accounts about the use of this project suggest students enjoyed the format of the videos and quizzes, correlated with improved performance on the relevant exam questions. This approach to student retention of condensed lecture material may be useful at other institutions.