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

Vernon Curran; Karla Simmons; Lauren Matthews; Lisa Fleet; Diana L Gustafson; Nicholas A Fairbridge; Xiaolin Xu

doi:10.1007/s40670-020-01016-w

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

Med Sci Educ. 2020 Jun 29;30(4):1775-1782. doi: 10.1007/s40670-020-01016-w. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Vernon Curran¹, Karla Simmons², Lauren Matthews², Lisa Fleet², Diana L Gustafson³, Nicholas A Fairbridge², Xiaolin Xu²

Affiliations

¹ Health Sciences Centre, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, Room H2982, St. John's, NL A1B 3V6 Canada.
² Office of Professional and Educational Development, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Canada.
³ Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John's, Canada.

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.

Keywords: Evaluation; Medical education; Scoping review; Social media; YouTube.