title: The effectiveness of webcast compared to live lectures as a teaching tool in medical school.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study is to investigate whether webcast lectures are comparable to live lectures as a teaching tool in medical school.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three Otolaryngology-Head&Neck Surgery (OTO-HNS) lectures were given to third year medical students through their regular academic curriculum with one group receiving lectures in a live lecture format and the other group in a webcast format. All lectures (live or webcast) were given by the same lecturer and contained identical material. Three outcome measures were used: a student satisfaction survey, performance on the OTO-HNS component of their written examination, and performance on an OTO-HNS OSCE station in the general end of year OSCE examination session.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students performance on the written examination was equal between the two groups. The webcast group outperformed the live lecture group in the OSCE station. The majority of students in the webcast group felt it was an effective learning tool for them. Most viewed the lectures more than once, and felt that this was beneficial to their learning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Webcasts appear equally effective to live lectures as a teaching tool.
authors.affiliation: a University of Ottawa , Canada.
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vaccani
authors.affiliation: a University of Ottawa , Canada.
authors.forename: Hedyeh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Javidnia
authors.affiliation: a University of Ottawa , Canada.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Humphrey-Murto
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D057211:Webcasts as Topic