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YouTube as an Educational Resource in Medical Education: a Scoping Review

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Abstract

YouTube has emerged as a growing educational resource for medical learners and educators; yet, its broad implementation may lack guidance from evidence-based evaluations. This article presents a scoping review of the utility, effectiveness, and validity of YouTube video resources in medical education. Of the 113 articles identified, 31 articles met inclusion criteria that focused on use of YouTube in medical education. Only 19.4% of the articles (n = 6) reported evaluative outcomes related to the use of YouTube for instructional purposes. Recommendations are offered for improving the usefulness and quality of YouTube videos as an educational resource in medical education.

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Data Availability

A supplementary table on characteristics of video review articles was submitted along with the article.

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Funding

This study was funded by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Sciences Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, Room H2982, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3V6, Canada

    Vernon Curran

  2. Office of Professional and Educational Development, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John’s, Canada

    Karla Simmons, Lauren Matthews, Lisa Fleet, Nicholas A. Fairbridge & Xiaolin Xu

  3. Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John’s, Canada

    Diana L. Gustafson

Authors
  1. Vernon Curran
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  5. Diana L. Gustafson
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  6. Nicholas A. Fairbridge
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  7. Xiaolin Xu
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Contributions

VC conceived of this paper. VC, KS, LM, LF, and DLG screened and reviewed selected articles, and reviewed the analysis and the final draft of the manuscript. VC, KS, NF, and XX wrote and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vernon Curran.

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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This is a scoping review of literature. No ethical approval is required.

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Curran, V., Simmons, K., Matthews, L. et al. YouTube as an Educational Resource in Medical Education: a Scoping Review. Med.Sci.Educ. 30, 1775–1782 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-020-01016-w

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