Impact of "Workshop" on the performances of first professional medical students in Physiology

Introducing interactive techniques of teaching in medical education can promote learner participation and, as a result, can lead to a higher level of learning. This article assesses the effectiveness of interactive learning technique. The present study was conducted on 300 first professional medical students of two consecutive batches, each of 150 students, with an aim to evaluate the impact of "Workshop" on their performances in Physiology. Students of both the batches were divided into three groups of 50 students each. All the groups were exposed to a workshop of two hours held once a week for ten weeks under the guidance of a facilitator. Their performance in Physiology was then assessed by subsequently held pre-professional theory examination. To evaluate the impact of workshop, their individual performances in terms of marks obtained as well as performance of the batch in terms of number of students passed in pre-professional examination were compared with that in the semester examination, held before conduction of the workshops. Outcome analysis of both the batches revealed that not only the performance of the batch but also the individual performances of the students were significantly higher in pre-professional examination than that in semester examination. This revealed the positive impact of workshop on the acquisition of knowledge by the students, their retention of the topic and their motivation towards self-directed learning. This study may help facilitators encourage more of student-centered learning activities in their curriculum to fulfill the goals of outcome based education focused towards students becoming lifelong learners.