A new method of recording attendance improves the academic performance of medical students

• Main Authors: HIMEL MONDAL, KOUSHIK SAHA, SHAIKAT MONDAL, PIYALI SAHA, SAIRAVI BIRI
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shiraz University of Medical Sciences 2020-04-01
• Series: Journal of Advances in Medical Education and Professionalism
• Subjects: academic performance; attention; medical education; students
• Online Access: http://jamp.sums.ac.ir/article_46405_fdaf050aadd0480b656ad9e2ca8e65e5.pdf

Introduction: Students’ engagement during the collection of<br />attendance (SEdCA) is a method where students write the answer<br />to a question related to the topic of preceding 1-h lecture. Then,<br />attendance is recorded by the teacher from the answer sheets.<br />This method was introduced primarily to overcome difficulty in<br />recording attendance from a class of high attendance. Its potential<br />formative assessment capability has not yet been ascertained. With<br />this background, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of<br />the application of SEdCA as a method of formative assessment on<br />the academic performance of first-year medical students.<br />Methods: This interventional, uncontrolled, before and after study<br />was conducted on 93 first-year medical students. Part completion<br />test (PCT) scores in anatomy before the application of SEdCA<br />was considered as the pre-intervention academic performance.<br />Then, 1-h lectures were designed according to SEdCA for a<br />period of 3 months. The next PCT scores were taken as postintervention<br />performance and compared with the pre-intervention<br />performance using paired t-test with α=0.05.<br />Results: Ninety-three (female=38, male=55) first-year medical<br />students with a mean age of 17.65±0.88 years participated in the<br />study. There was a significant increase in theory (23.74±5.67<br />versus 26.40±5.17, t=3.31, P<0.001), practical (21.43±6.60 versus<br />24.08±5.16, t=6.95, P<0.001), and total (45.17±11 versus 50.47±9.17,<br />t=8, P<0.001) scores in the post-intervention PCT.<br />Conclusion: SEdCA may be applied to enhance the academic<br />competency of first-year medical students. However, its impact<br />should be evaluated further in multiple subjects in students of<br />different years of study in more institutes for a generalized result.