Assessing Student Viewing Behaviors for Online Lectures and its Impact on Student Examination Performance

Abstract

Objectives: Using a flipped-classroom model, students in Infectious Diseases Therapeutics (IDT) 1 and 2 view online lectures prior to attending workshops where they answer questions about patient cases to synthesize knowledge. The objectives of this study were to assess 1) the association between pre-workshop lecture viewing (pre-viewing) and examination scores and 2) change in student viewing behavior between IDT1 and IDT2. Method: This retrospective study included students who completed IDT1/2 in 2015-2016. For the primary objective, lecture viewing analytics was evaluated to compare each student’s percent lectures viewed before respective workshops to their examination scores on the workshop topic(s). A Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess this objective. For the secondary objective, the overall percent of lectures viewed in IDT1 and 2 was compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: In IDT1, 154 students were enrolled and 151 completed IDT2. Of the 7 workshops in IDT1 there was a moderate correlation between pre-viewing and examination scores in the endocarditis/osteomyelitis workshop (r=.33;p<.000). Four other workshops in IDT1 also showed a small positive correlation (r=0.192-0.286;p<0.01). In IDT2, 2 out of 7 workshops showed a small positive correlation between pre-viewing and examination scores (r=0.254-0.28;p<0.05). A significant decrease in pre-viewing over time was seen with the average pre-viewing before workshops in IDT1 and 2 being 44.6% and 37.2% respectively. Implications: A flipped-classroom model has been implemented throughout pharmacy curriculums. This study suggests that many students may not be presenting prepared for this type of teaching which may not consistently impact their performance on examinations.