Does Attendance Credit Increase Medical Students’ Participation in In‐class Lectures and Performance in Pharmacology?
Authors: Paudel Keshab Raj , Diaz Leoncio , Johnson Gbemisola 
Published: April 2020

In‐class attendance is very important for a successful academic performance of students in a medical school. However, in‐class attendance in a traditional theory lecture may be a debate for many medical educators. This present study aimed to analyze a correlation between an in‐class lecture attendance and a performance in Pharmacology subject examination.

A total of 182 students form a period of two years, January 2017 to December 2018, were enrolled in the study. Ethical clearance was obtained from institutional review board of Trinity Medical Sciences University. The students were enrolled in the study when they were in their third academic semester, and same teacher with more than 8 years of teaching experience lectured 45 Pharmacology lectures in a traditional teaching style using PowerPoint slides and a projector. All the PowerPoint slides were made available to all the students prior to the lectures and till the end of their academic semesters. First group of students were given attendance credit of 10 points (credited attendance) calibrated as per their percentage of attendance during their whole semesters. Following the subsequent year, attendance of the second group of students was not credited (non‐credited attendance). Attendance record sheet was circulated in every encounter prior to lecture and was collected after completion of the lecture. Students were given three formative and one summative assessments. Assessment items were single response multiple choice questions built around clinical vignettes with one best answer and four distracters, and were prepared by the same teacher. Averages of cumulative academic scores in percentages were calculated and correlated with their in‐class attendance in percentages. Pearson correlation test was used to see the correlation between the scores and in‐class lecture attendances, and Chi Square test was used to compare the categorical data. P value ≤0.05 was considered to be significant.

Eighty seven percent (87%) of students attended more than 70% of lectures when in‐class attendance was credited whereas only 44% of students attended more than 70% of lectures when attendance was not credited. The average of ‘credited in‐class attendance’ was 87% vs 61% for ‘non‐credited in‐class attendance’ (P<0.001). The correlation between academic score and ‘credited in‐class attendance’ was significant (Pearson correlation coefficient, r= 240, df= 90, rcritical for df 90 at P=0.05 is 0.205), and the correlation between academic score and ‘non‐credited in‐class attendance’ was highly significant (Pearson correlation coefficient, r= 368, df= 88, rcritical for df 80 at P=0.01 is 0.283).

Attendance credit increases the in‐class attendance significantly in the lectures, and it has significant positive correlation with the performance of Pharmacology subject examination. So, external motivation to attend the in‐class lectures increases in‐class attendance and performance in exams.

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