Comparative evaluation of different techniques required to make a didactic lecture effective

Background: Lectures being still important methods in teaching and learning in medical curriculum and need active participation from students. The traditional methods of lecture delivery need improvement in teaching patterns. By introducing some new lecturing techniques, we can enhance the knowledge retention and improve the overall performance of the students. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of various techniques used to make didactic lectures interactive and to compare the effect of traditional versus structured didactic lectures (interactive lecturing) on the performance of undergraduate students. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective, single-blind, interventional study. A total of 146 1st MBBS students (controls-73 and study-73) participated in all the activities of the study. Each lecture was structured and planned according to the technique to be used during didactic lecture to make it interactive. Pre-/post-test was prepared on the decided topics. Pre-test was given before the lecture and post-test after interactive lecturing. Four different techniques, putting questions in stipulated form, point of the day, muddiest point, and distributing handouts, followed by discussion were used to make the lecture interactive. Each technique was introduced in a separate set of lectures for the study group participants. Results: The results showed significant improvement in post-test scores of the study group for all the four techniques used. Class average normalized gain (measure for effectiveness and robustness of an educational intervention) was more than 0.7 (70%) for putting questions in stipulated form and muddiest point. While it was more than 0.5 (50%) for point of the day and handouts with the discussion. Conclusion: Intervention in the form of interactive lecturing techniques in physiology was moderately effective for “point of the day” and “handouts followed by discussion” techniques, while intervention in the form of putting questions in stipulated form and muddiest point were highly effective. All four techniques were well perceived by the students. The interactive lecturing techniques improve the student’s performance as compared to the traditional lecturing.