Impact of utilisation of uncompleted handouts on power point presentations (PPT) in rural Indian medical institute

Introduction: Note taking while attending a PPT requires high activity of memory and writing process which ultimately leads to what is called “death by power point” referring to boredom and fatigue. To overcome this we planned to evaluate the impact of utilisation of uncompleted handouts given prior to PPT presentations. Methods: Final year MBBS students were divided in 2 batches, batch A and batch B. For a set of lectures one batch was provided with handouts before lecture while the other batch was given lectures only. Crossover was done to avoid bias, all the lectures being given by the same presenter. At the end of each lecture, a short questionnaire of 10 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) was provided to the students. Mean scores were calculated for lectures with handouts and without handouts. Results: For a set of lectures, when batch A was provided with handouts, the mean score was 28.2; for batch B to which no handouts were given the mean score was 23.4. Similarly, for batch B when provided with handouts the mean score was 29.1, for batch A which was not provided with handouts the mean score was 24. There was an average increase of 4.2 marks. Actual gain when handouts were provided was 1.2 marks per lecture. It was more for the batch comprising of repeater students as compared to the batch of fresher students. Increase in attendance was also noted. Conclusion: Providing uncompleted handouts before a didactic lecture definitely results in increase in knowledge gain; repeater students benefit more with uncompleted handouts.