Health Science Reviews

by Nokubonga Ntsele

We consume a lot of content on YouTube including educational videos to supplement our learning as students. It has become a common thing to the point where we don’t feel the need to check the accuracy of the information, let alone the quality of these videos. A study was performed to evaluate the usage of YouTube videos as educational material. It focused on content about Histology, which is the study of tissues and where the structure of cells is studied microscopically. Additionally, they looked at Embryology which is the part of science that studies the embryo and foetus development. They wanted to get experts in the field to check how reliable the information being shared is and the quality of these videos.

To achieve this aim, they got medical doctors who specialised in the field of histology and embryology to assess these videos. They used three different scoring systems that evaluated the quality of information that was in the videos namely: DISCERN (Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information), JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) and GQS (Global Quality Scale). These scoring systems used points to measure the quality of the videos, from low quality to medium quality. They also got to evaluate the usefulness of these videos using the views, likes or dislikes and comments on YouTube.

In conclusion, this study was able to show me as a student that uses YouTube content to supplement the way I study, that the information provided in these videos will not always be accurate. Especially, on the topic of medical education that needs to be evaluated by medical specialists and correspond with the current literature. Institutions must take the initiative to provide learning materials online that are accurate and with the quality that complies with quality scores. Take home message is that, using YouTube as our primary source of teaching may not be advantageous as much as we think of it to be but according to this study, we saw the importance of evaluating the quality and accuracy of these videos.

Reference:

Cetinavci, D., Yasar, V., Yucel, A., & Elbe, H. (2022). Evaluation of the usage of YouTube videos about Histology and Embryology as an educational material. Anatomia, Histologia, Embryologia, 51, 810–817. https://doi.org/10.1111/ahe.12859