Theme
3BB The lecture and the flipped classroom
INSTITUTION
University of Glasgow - United Kingdom
Traditional didactic lectures in medical curricula are used to transmit large amounts of information in a short time frame but evidence shows that student attention lapses after 15-20 minutes into a lecture (1, 2). Along with this, there is a concern that deep understanding of topics is often missed in favour of fact retention. In this study, I am interested in finding out student perception of the use of interactive tools within lectures and whether the use of such tools encourages active learning, improves understanding and helps students retain knowledge.
Two lectures on muscle embryology and limb development were delivered to Year 1 MBChB students.
Students were asked to answer questions about their experience in the lectures with a 5 point Likert scale using an electronic voting system (EVS) at the end of the second lecture. All responses were collected anonymously.
A focus group was held the day after the second lecture. Students (n=6) were asked a series of open ended questions in order to gather more detailed feedback.
The use of interactivity in lectures is a hot topic in medical education. A recent study demonstrated that that the use of EVS improved learning and retention of concepts in medical students (3), and the use of real time anonymous discussion boards can encourage medical students to ask questions without fear of "looking stupid" (4).
Students felt the use of interactive tools made the lecture more interesting and helped them stay focussed during the lecture. It allowed them to check that they understood the topic being presented and they were in favour of being able to compare their answers to the rest of the class.
Setting clear boundaries at the beginning of interactive lectures is crucial to remind students of the importance of professional behaviour when using the discussion boards, especially when an anonymous tool is being utilised.
The results from this study show that students value and enjoy the use of interactive tools within a lecture setting. Asking and answering questions using interactive tools during lectures facilitates the development of deep, active learning and knowledge creation, gives the students instant feedback on their performance and gives students the feeling that they are contributing to their own learning.
Although care must be taken to remind students to use these tools in an appropriate and professional manner, the use of interactive tools within lectures is welcomed, and can have a positive impact on student focus, knowledge and understanding.
(1) Knight, J. and Wood, W.B. (2005). Teaching more by lecturing less. Cell Biol Educ vol. 4 no. 4 298-310.
(2) Mazur, E. (2009). Farewell lecture? Science 2 January 2009: Vol. 323 no. 5910 pp. 50-51
(3) Millor, M., Extano, J., Slon, P., Garcia –Barquin, P., Villanueva, A., Bastarrika, G. and Ciro Pueyo, J. (2015). Use of remote response devices: an effective interactive method in the long-term learning. Eur Radiology, 25: 894-900.
(4) Pohl, A., Gehlen-Baum, V. and Bry, F. (2011). Introducing Backstage - a digital backchannel for large class lectures. Interact. Technol. Smart Educ., 8 (3), pp. 186–200
Thank you to the University of Glasgow MBChB 1 students for their participation in this study.