Effectiveness of power point presentations in teaching anatomy: A students’ perspective

Use of PowerPoint presentations (PPT) plays a key role in anatomy to learn and understand a particular topic. As the subject of anatomy involves more of illustrations and demonstrations, PPT becomes essential in conveying the necessary information. PPT’s design adds to the didactic nature of classroom teaching method to dissipate large number of facts, interspersed with illustrations and animations. This study was conducted to understand a student’s perspective and their choice, as to whether they prefer PPT or Blackboard (BB) for their lecture classes. A questionnaire was prepared and was distributed to 160 students of II MBBS course which was based on the effectiveness of teaching tools like BB and PPT and the two methods were compared. Some questions were yes/no type and the others were to tick the preferred method of lecture presentations for each of the given attributes. The students were instructed to answer the questions based on their experience without revealing their identity. 66.1% of students found PPT a better and effective tool which creates interest in the subject. Blackboard enhanced the active participation of students in the class (61.3%) and also helped them to take down notes and diagrams (56.5%). 88.7% of students agreed that a large number of facts could be provided with PPT. The present study provided the students perspective on the teaching tools. PPT is the most acceptable and advanced tool for learning. The traditional method of BB teaching is an alternative for certain aspects such as taking notes and diagrams.