Perception on lecture class in Community Medicine among MBBS students of West Bengal in India

Back ground: Lecture is an important, accepted and well used method of sharing andproviding information in a group of students in a specified time and place in an organizedmanner. Defect in this method may affect adversely both the knowledge provider andaccepter. Therefore a continuous search is an essential need for improvement of lectureclasses that is the impetus of our study.Objectives: i) To study the perception of MBBS students about lecture class inCommunity Medicine and ii) to recommend measures for improvement of those classes.Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was undertaken among 4th and 7th semesterMBBS students of Burdwan Medical College in West Bengal, India using pretested selfadministeredquestionnaire.Results: 4th semester students opined to have significantly more number of lectureclasses (p=.024). They preferred pre-lunch session for lecture more (p=.022) than 7thsemester students and more number of students in lecture class (p=.016). 7th semesterstudents realized the necessity of lecture class significantly (p=0.002) more andmentioned about lack of summarization at the end (p=0.000).Conclusion: It is revealed from the study that there are a number of lacunae inorganization of lecture classes and also in the way the classes are taken. The findings willhelp the teachers to use this method more effectively for betterment of students.