This week I read an interesting article: “Do medical students watch video clips in eLearning and do these facilitate learning?” by KALLE ROMANOV & ANNE NEVGI.

The article found that:

Almost 20% of third year medical students neglected video clips as a multimedia learning tool.

Female medical students more actively used multimedia content in eLearning.

Video-watchers more frequently used the collaborative discussion tools.

Students who watched video clips were more active in using collaborative eLearning tools and achieved higher course grades.

I can say from personal experience that I actively participate in all my online courses and discussion boards which I think contributes greatly to my overall comprehension of the material presented.  It is sad to me that even though those who watched the video clips did in fact show greater learning (through evaluation of course) 20% of the students did not even attempt to watch the clips. I wonder if the study was conducted again if there would be 1) increased collaboration and multimedia interactions and 2) decreased gender differences as I would anticipate the general audience who participates in eLearning modules may have changed even in just 7 years.

Additionally, given the reading material this week on Problem Based Learning (PBL) I was excited to see it referenced in the article:

A recent study showed that medical students regarded online discussion as useless when integrated with face-to-face contact in tutorial problem-based learning (PBL) groups (de Leng et al. 2006).