Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Introduction
Common teaching methods such as lectures are not effective for learning theoretical materials and integrated methods should be used for teaching. The multimedia method by presenting learning materials in various forms of audio, image, animation, and video, uses all the different senses of the learners. This study aims to compare the college students’ learning and satisfaction with teaching by the multimedia and conventional methods.
Methods
This is a quasi-experimental study. The study population consists of all female students from the faculties of medicine, nursing, and health at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences who took the applied ethics course in 2022-2023. Sampling was done by a census method. In this regard, 121 students were selected and randomly divided into intervention and control groups by throwing dice. The students in the intervention group received education by the multimedia method while the students in the control group received education by the lecture method (routine teaching method). The intervention group was given a guide on how to make clips and podcasts. A virtual group was created on Telegram Messenger, and the homework was followed up by the teacher through the messenger. Educational slides, video clips, short text and podcasts related to each session were provided to students through this messenger. Educational intervention was performed for six weeks at six sessions, each for 90 min. The teacher’s role was to review the documents provided by the students and give repeated feedback until the deficiencies would be eliminated and corrections were made.
The data collection tools were three questionnaires including the demographic form, a researcher-made learning scale with 15 four-choice questions, where the correct answer was given 1 point and the wrong answer was given zero points (total score ranged from 0 to 15), and a researcher-made satisfaction scale with 17 items in three areas (the course content, the assignments and school activities, and the produced content) rated on a 6-point Likert scale from 0 to 5 (total score ranged from 0 to 85). For determining the validity of the questionnaires, the opinions of 10 experts were asked about the necessity and clarity of the items and the modifications were applied to. The reliability of the questionnaire was also determined. The obtained data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistical tests through STATA statistical software, version 14.
Results
Participants were 121 female students (70 in the intervention group and 51 in the control group) aged 19-21 years. The mean learning score in the intervention group was 4.01 points higher than in the control group and this difference was statistically significant (t=-9.35, P<0.001). The total satisfaction score was 3.58±0.23 (out of 5). The percentage of students in the intervention group who were completely or relatively satisfied in the areas of course content, presented assignments, and produced content were 68.10%, 33.33%, and 79.31%, respectively. The highest satisfaction score was related to the produced content and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001).
Conclusion
In this study, the students’ learning increased by using the multimedia teaching method and the students were satisfied with the implementation of this course. It is recommended that professors use this teaching method for better, more effective, and sustainable learning of applied ethics and other theoretical courses.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.UMSHA.REC.1402.312).
Funding
The Vice Chancellor of Research and Technology of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences sponsored this article.
Authors contributions
Conceptualization, study design, development of the questionnaire, data collection and writing: Masoumeh Seidi and Mitra Bahrami; Data analysis and interpretation: All authors; Final approval: Roya Rashti.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to all students who participated in this study and also appreciate Hamadan University of Medical Sciences for their financial support.