Summative program evaluation of a Student-Led Seminar Series in the subject of physiology: an outcome-based study

Active involvement of students in their learning process is a recommended andragogical approach to increase student engagement. Many new teaching-learning strategies based on active learning have been implemented, but their efficacies to achieve the proposed benefits of attaining knowledge, skills, and attitude have not been evaluated, especially in the field of medical education. We substituted passive learning in the conventional tutorial classes with an active-learning strategy of Student-Led Seminar Series (SLSS) in the subject of physiology over 4 months and performed program evaluation for the SLSS.

Sixty-four first-year medical undergraduate students volunteered to participate, who were divided into groups to present seminars on the allocated topics under the guidance of a mentor. At the end of 4 months, program evaluation was done using Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation-levels 1 and 2, which correspond to reaction and learning, respectively.

Statistically significant improvement was observed in students' satisfaction, and the self-perceived increase was observed in knowledge, skills, and attitude.

Program evaluation of SLSS not only established the significant impact of SLSS as an andragogical approach but also helped us in the improvisation of the program for the next cycle.