The use of short downloadable lectures to supplement didactic lectures

Abstract 

Pharmacy school faculty who teach in the pharmacotherapeutics courses have a lot of information to present in a small amount of time, making it difficult to incorporate active learning strategies in the classroom. We evaluated student-reported use and students' impressions of listening to a downloadable audio file to introduce specific topics in a therapeutics course before coming to class. Using inexpensive equipment and shareware recording software, faculty members were able to prepare a short introductory lecture that could be downloaded as an MP3 file. Of the 420 students offered the audio lecture, 178 (42%) reported downloading and listening to the MP3 file before class. Students who listened to the audio lecture were more likely to report feeling more prepared for class. In addition, students reported that they would rather listen to a short audio presentation before class instead of reading material in the textbook. Our results are limited because of the low response rate and subjective quality of the data collected. However, downloadable lectures represent a new method for presenting information to students while potentially allowing more time in the classroom spent on active and cased-based learning. More studies are needed to assess the impact of downloadable lectures on performance and grades.

Keywords:  Instructional technology , Audio lectures , Active learning