Effectiveness of student-led objective tutorials in pharmacology teaching to medical students

Current teaching in pharmacology is passive with less emphasis on clinical application. There is a need to incorporate newer instructional designs into pharmacology. Student-led objective tutorial (SLOT) is one of the novel designs to enhance interest among learners, provide opportunities for group learning, and facilitate self-directed learning. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of SLOTs over conventional tutorials (CTs) in pharmacology and to obtain feedback from the students regarding their perceptions about it.

The regular batch of MBBS 2^nd professional in pharmacology was randomly divided into two groups. Five topics from central nervous system (CNS) were selected. One group received SLOT as the instructional strategy, whereas the other group went through CTs. At the end of the module, a written test was conducted to assess the effectiveness of both strategies. The students provided feedback regarding their experience using a prevalidated questionnaire.

The mean scores of both the groups were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U-test.

There was no significant difference in the mean scores of the end of the module test. However, the overall passing percentage was significantly higher in the intervention group (P = 0.043). A total of 45.71% students favored it as a future tutorial method and expressed that SLOT enhanced their ability to learn independently.

SLOT is an effective teaching-learning method to teach pharmacology to medical undergraduates. It enhances interest among learners and increases the ability to learn independently.