A new method of recording attendance improves the academic performance of medical students

Introduction: Students’ engagement during the collection ofattendance (SEdCA) is a method where students write the answerto a question related to the topic of preceding 1-h lecture. Then,attendance is recorded by the teacher from the answer sheets.This method was introduced primarily to overcome difficulty inrecording attendance from a class of high attendance. Its potentialformative assessment capability has not yet been ascertained. Withthis background, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect ofthe application of SEdCA as a method of formative assessment onthe academic performance of first-year medical students.Methods: This interventional, uncontrolled, before and after studywas conducted on 93 first-year medical students. Part completiontest (PCT) scores in anatomy before the application of SEdCAwas considered as the pre-intervention academic performance.Then, 1-h lectures were designed according to SEdCA for aperiod of 3 months. The next PCT scores were taken as postinterventionperformance and compared with the pre-interventionperformance using paired t-test with α=0.05.Results: Ninety-three (female=38, male=55) first-year medicalstudents with a mean age of 17.65±0.88 years participated in thestudy. There was a significant increase in theory (23.74±5.67versus 26.40±5.17, t=3.31, P<0.001), practical (21.43±6.60 versus24.08±5.16, t=6.95, P<0.001), and total (45.17±11 versus 50.47±9.17,t=8, P<0.001) scores in the post-intervention PCT.Conclusion: SEdCA may be applied to enhance the academiccompetency of first-year medical students. However, its impactshould be evaluated further in multiple subjects in students ofdifferent years of study in more institutes for a generalized result.