Abstract

This research aims to explore undergraduate students’ views on the inclusion of e-lectures within their clinical degree programme, and to identify the optimum usage for this increasingly popular teaching method. Considerable benefits of the flipped-classroom paradigm include increased student satisfaction, improved academic performance and opportunities to develop communication and team-building skills, providing rationale to integrate this approach into the Orthoptics programme. However, anecdotal observations of infrequently accessed e-lectures, alongside mixed student feedback, suggest that research is required to capture the views of the student cohort to inform the future use of e-lectures within the programme. A focus group was conducted in 2019, comprising 8 participants across the programme at the University of Liverpool in England. A topic guide supported a semi-structured discussion around the students’ perceptions of e-lectures. Audio recordings underwent two counts of transcription, and thematic analysis was performed by the two authors. The core themes identified following thematic analysis of the transcript included the students’ overall perceptions of e-lectures as a method of learning, and the perceived facilitators and barriers to utilising e-lectures. The key findings highlighted an unexpected perception that e-lectures are not valued as highly as face-to-face lectures. Consideration should be given to the aspects of e-learning that the student voice considered to be facilitators and barriers to engagement, as these appeared to contradict some of the well-established theories in published literature. The authors recommend that related programmes undertake similar scoping exercises to ensure that their students are gaining the maximum benefits from e-lectures.

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