Effectiveness of Self-paced and Instructor-led Online Learning: A Study among Phase I Medical Students

Introduction: Online teaching is a crucial challenge in the current pandemic situation. Choosing the right modality for teaching and delivering the information in a very effective manner is critical. Self-paced learning is an important modality that moulds the students into adult learners.

Aim: To compare the effectiveness of teaching modalities like self-paced learning and instructor-led live online lecture class based on performance in assessments.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on phase I medical students over a period of three months where they were given self-paced learning and online instructor-led lecture sessions. Topics and reading materials for self-paced learning were provided to the participants through Telegram. After one week they were evaluated using objective-based assessments. Instructor-led live online lecture classes also were taken for them through Impartus followed by assessments. Independent t-test was done to assess the difference between the both performances based on the scores attained.

Results: Total of 86 subjects were included in which 54 were females with mean age 18.75 years and 32 males with mean age 18.84 years. After online lecture sessions, 93.02% (n=80) of students came in the high performers group, while only 65.12% (n=56) of students belonged in self-paced learning sessions. There was no significant difference in performance in both modalities between gender (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Instructor-led live online methods are more effective than self-paced learning. Self-paced learning is also important in education as it enhances the quality of adult learning. Implementing e-learning into the current syllabus can be more productive as it augments student teacher interaction.