Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Education
Date Submitted: Oct 25, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 25, 2018 - Dec 20, 2018
Date Accepted: Apr 26, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
YouTube videos as a source of information about immunology for medical students
ABSTRACT
Background:
The use of the internet as a source of information has grown exponentially in the last decade. YouTube is currently the second most visited website and a major online educational resource for medical students.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality, accuracy and attractiveness of the information acquired from YouTube videos about two central concepts in immunology.
Methods:
YouTube videos posted prior to August 27, 2018 were searched using selected keywords related to either antigen presentation or immunoglobulin gene rearrangement. Video characteristics were recorded and the Video Power Index was calculated. Videos were assessed using five validated scoring systems: Understandability and Attractiveness, reliability, Content and Comprehensiveness, Global Quality Score and a subjective score. Videos were categorized by educational usefulness and by source.
Results:
A total of 82 videos about antigen presentation and 70 about immunoglobulin gene rearrangement were analyzed. Videos had a mean Understandability and Attractiveness score of 6,57/8 and 5,84/8, Content and Comprehensiveness score of 9,84/20 and 5,84/20, reliability score of 1,65/4 and 1,53/4, Global Quality Scale of 3,38/5 and 2,76/5, and subjective score of 2,00/3 and 2,00/3, respectively. The organized channels group tended to have the highest Video Power Index and Global Quality Scale.
Conclusions:
YouTube can provide medical students with some useful information about immunology, although content-wise it cannot substitute textbooks and academic courses. Students and teachers should be aware of the educational quality of available videos if they intend to use them in the context of blended learning.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.