Academic performance of dental students: A randomised trial comparing live, audio recorded and video recorded lectures

Objectives To compare the academic performance of 4th‐year dental students randomly divided into three learning groups: live lecture, video recorded lecture and audio recorded lecture. To assess students’ attitudes towards the three learning methods. Materials and methods 4th‐year undergraduate students, enrolled in the Orthodontics Theory—1 course, were randomised into three groups receiving different teaching methods; video recorded lecture, audio recorded lecture and live lecture. Subjects were asked to answer two open‐ended questions. The first was a simple basic knowledge question in which the answer involved transcribing information from the question, while the second required analytical thinking. Students were also asked to complete a questionnaire assessing their attitudes towards the three learning methods. Results 94 students participated in the study and were randomly allocated to each learning method. There were no significant differences in scores between the 3 study groups when answering the basic knowledge question (P > .05). The mean score for the analytic question was significantly higher for the live lecture and video recorded lecture groups compared to the audio recorded lecture group (P