An innovative method to enhance interaction during lecture sessions

The B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan, is following an innovative hybrid curriculum. Conventional lectures are replaced by "structured interactive sessions" (SIS). SIS involves increased interchange between teachers, students, and lecture contents by proper planning and organized efforts. It can promote active learning and heighten attention and motivation. The present study was conducted to enhance active interactions during such sessions. The students were divided into two groups and asked to come prepared for the lectures. Students were encouraged to ask questions and interact informally during lectures. A scoreboard was maintained, and student feedback was taken at the end of the lecture block. The entire student response was reduced to a student acceptability index (SAI). Our results show a statistically significant increase in interactions per student per day. A majority of the responses in the questionnaire and SAI were favorable. Specific comments and suggestions of students were also positive. These results show that simple innovative techniques enhance the interactions during a lecture session.     

Memory for Lectures: How Lecture Format Impacts the Learning Experience

The present study investigated what impact the presentation style of a classroom lecture has on memory, mind wandering, and the subjective factors of interest and motivation. We examined if having a professor lecturing live versus on video alters the learning experience of the students in the classroom. During the lectures, students were asked to report mind wandering and later complete a memory test. The lecture format was manipulated such that all the students received two lectures, one live and one a pre-recorded video. Results indicate that lecture format affected memory performance but not mind wandering, with enhanced memory in the live lectures. Additionally, students reported greater interest and motivation in the live lectures. Given that a single change to the classroom environment, professor presence, impacted memory performance, as well as motivation and interest, the present results have several key implications for technology-based integrations into higher education classrooms.     

Using a learning log to support students' learning in biology lessons

Providing copies of an instructor's lecture notes before lectures is enthusiastically approved of by university students in introductory biology classes. Surprisingly, students who use the notes tend to perform less well onexams than students who avoid using the notes. However, there is no evidence that using the notes is harmful to learning; rather, those students who choose not to use the notes enter the course with better preparation or knowledge than the class as a whole. Pre-circulated notes may improve the clarity of lectures and encourage advance preparation by students — a learning discipline possibly as valuable as organising and reviewing one's own notes.     

Stress in student teachers during real and simulated standardized lectures

This study describes and compares the intensity of stress responses, both psychologically and physiologically, to a real and a simulated stressor. The real stressor involved lecturing to a class of students in a post-secondary institution during a practice teaching course. The simulated stressor was a simulated, standardized lecture given in a lecture room to 6 fellow students and 2 members of the university staff. To gain insight into the intensity of the stress responses, the measurements took place before, during, and after lecturing. The adaptation to the stressor after a teaching practice period in which the student teacher gave at least 20 lectures was also studied. Subjective anxiety scores were obtained in both situations from 26 subjects. For 12 of these subjects, heart rate responses were also obtained. The psychological and physiological data indicated that lecturing imposes a severe load on the student teacher, especially at the beginning of the teaching experience. At the end of the practice course, all stress indices showed lower values. Heart rate and subjective anxiety scores indicated that the standardized lecture is experienced as more ego threatening than the real lecture.     

Comparing biology majors from large lecture classes with TA-facilitated laboratories to those from small lecture classes with faculty-facilitated laboratories

The teaching faculty for this course sought to address their own concerns about the quality of student learning in an impersonal large lecture biology class for majors, the difficulties in getting to know each student by name, and difficulties in soliciting answers and reactions from the students during the lecture. Questions addressed by this study were, Do active-learning activities in a small and personal lecture setting enhance student learning more than active-learning activities in large impersonal lectures? and Are students more satisfied with an educational experience in a small and personal lecture setting? Based on faculty perceptions of how they best relate to their students, the prediction was that the students in the experimental group with small lecture classes and increased direct contact with the teaching faculty would learn physiological principles better than the students in the control group in the large impersonal lecture portion of the course. One of the laboratory sections of this large enrollment biology course was randomly selected to be taught with separate small lectures by the teaching faculty. In addition, the teaching faculty participated in the laboratory with these students during their experiments correlated with the lecture material. The students in both groups were compared by pre- and posttests of physiological principles, final course grades, and class satisfaction surveys.     

Using online lectures to make time for active learning

To make time in class for group activities devoted to critical thinking, we integrated a series of short online lectures into the homework assignments of a large, introductory biology course at a research university. The majority of students viewed the online lectures before coming to class and reported that the online lectures helped them to complete the in-class activity and did not increase the amount of time they devoted to the course. In addition, students who viewed the online lecture performed better on clicker questions designed to test lower-order cognitive skills. The in-class activities then gave the students practice analyzing the information in groups and provided the instructor with feedback about the students' understanding of the material. On the basis of the results of this study, we support creating hybrid course models that allow students to learn the fundamental information outside of class time, thereby creating time during the class period to be dedicated toward the conceptual understanding of the material.     

Combination of didactic lectures and case-oriented problem-solving tutorials toward better learning: perceptions of students from a conventional medical curriculum

The Department of Physiology of Pramukhswami Medical College at Anand, Gujarat, India, started using problem-based learning in a modified way along with didactic lectures to improve students' understanding and motivate them toward self-directed study. After the didactic lectures were taken for a particular system, clearly defined short clinical problems related to that system were given to the students in the tutorial classes. Each tutor was assigned three to four groups of five to six students each. Problems were accompanied with relevant questions so as to streamline the thought processes of the first-year undergraduates. The tutor then facilitated the study process, and the students discussed among themselves to derive their solutions. At the end of the sessions, feedback was taken from the students through a planned questionnaire on a three-point scale. Of a total of 278 students over a span of 3 yr from 1999 to 2002, 74.4% of students favored a judicious mixture of didactic lectures and case-oriented problem solving in tutorial classes to be an efficient modality in understanding a system under study, and 84% of students stated the mixture of didactic lectures and case-oriented problem solving to be beneficial in relating a clinical condition to the basic mechanism; 82% of students believed that this module helped with better interactions among their batch mates, and 77.2% of students hoped to perform better in the university examination due to this new teaching/learning modality. They also expressed that this gave them ample motivation to do self-directed learning. It may therefore be concluded from the results of the present study that it is possible to have a problem-based learning module in the form of case-oriented problem-solving tutorials coexistent with the traditional didactic lecture module in the first year of medical education under a conventional curriculum.     

Assessment outcome is weakly correlated with lecture attendance: influence of learning style and use of alternative materials

The relation between lecture attendance and learning is surprisingly weak, and the role of learning styles in this is poorly understood. We hypothesized that 1) academic performance is related to lecture attendance and 2) learning style influences lecture attendance and, consequently, affects performance. We also speculated that the availability of alternative resources would affect this relationship. Second-year Bachelor of Science physiology students (n = 120) self-reported their lecture attendance in a block of 21 lectures (attendance not compulsory) and use of alternative resources. Overall self-reported lecture attendance was 73 ± 2%. Female students (n = 71) attended more lectures (16.4 ± 0.6) than male students (14.3 ± 0.08, n = 49) and achieved a higher composite mark in all assessments (73.6% vs. 69.3%, P < 0.02). Marks in the final exam were not statistically different between the sexes and correlated only weakly with lecture attendance (r = 0.29, n = 49, P < 0.04 for male students; r = 0.10, n = 71, P = not significant for female students; and r =0.21, n = 120, P < 0.02 for the whole class). Of the students who passed the exam, poor attenders (<11 lectures) reported significantly more use of lecture recordings (37 ± 8%, n = 15, vs. 10 ± 1%, n = 85, P < 0.001). In a VARK learning style assessment (where V is visual, A is auditory, R is reading/writing, and K is kinesthetic), students were multimodal, although female students had a slightly higher average percentage of the R learning style (preferred read/write) compared with male students (28.9 ± 0.9%, n = 63, vs. 25.3 ± 1.3%, n = 32, P < 0.03). Lecture attendance was not correlated with measured learning style. We concluded that lecture attendance is only weakly correlated with academic performance and is not related to learning style. The substitution of alternative materials for lecture attendance appears to have a greater role than learning style in determining academic outcomes.     

Evaluation of physiology lectures conducted by students: comparison between evaluation by staff and students

As a peer-assisted learning process, minilectures on physiology were conducted by students. During this process, students lecture to their colleagues in the presence of faculty staff members. These lectures were evaluated by faculty staff and students simultaneously. The aim of this study was to compare feedback from faculty members and students on 66 minilectures conducted by students. Their perception of different qualities of lecture was assessed using a questionnaire. There were significant correlations between students and faculty members for many qualities of the lecture, including the speed of the lecture, retaining attention, clear introduction, and the overall quality of the lecture. However, ratings for gesture, eye contact, language usage, illustration usage, audiovisuals, voice usage, and important points stressed were significantly different between students and faculty members. Multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the degree of effect of different aspects of a lecture on its overall quality. Aspects such as gesture, eye contact, and language usage showed very low β-values, suggesting a poor contribution of these factors to the overall quality of the lecture for both students and faculty members. The speed of the lecture, retaining attention, and clear introduction were qualities that faculty members and students rated equally, and these were the main contributors to the overall quality of the lecture. Awareness about the possible discrepancy between ratings given by faculty members and students may be important when interpreting the evaluation results of formal lectures by these two groups.     

Increasing student involvement in lectures: (very) low tech innovations in a biochemistry lecture class

The inherent passivity of the traditional lecture format makes this a poor mode for learning. In this paper I outline a simple but effective approach for eliciting student participation in the intermediate size lecture course (50–100 students). Two types of question are employed to increase student involvement. Each lecture ends with a set of questions directly related to concepts that will be covered in the next session. At the following lecture, specific students, chosen at random from the class list, are called on to answer these questions. Classroom participation is also elicited by calling on students to answer questions which focus on the major points during each lecture. Finally, students are invited to submit questions for inclusion on each exam. These devices make the lecture a more active and participatory experience.     

Endocrine physiology in a patient-centered learning curriculum

The medical curriculum at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences has recently been redesigned into a problem-based/traditional hybrid model that utilizes an integrated organ systems-based approach to teach basic and clinical sciences. The number of lecture hours in general has been greatly reduced, and, in particular, lecture hours in physiology have been reduced by 65%. Students learn basic science in small groups led by a faculty facilitator, and students are responsible for a great deal of their own teaching and learning. The curriculum is centered around patient cases and is called patient-centered learning (PCL). The curriculum includes traditional lectures and laboratories supporting faculty-generated learning objectives. Endocrine physiology is taught in year one, utilizing four weeks of patient cases that emphasize normal structure and function of endocrine systems. Endocrine physiology is revisited in year two, which is primarily focused on pathobiology. The PCL curriculum, with emphasis on the endocrine component, is described in detail along with key portions of an endocrine case.     

How much structuring is beneficial with regard to examination scores? A prospective study of three forms of active learning

Many studies have demonstrated a superiority of active learning forms compared with traditional lecture. However, there is still debate as to what degree structuring is necessary with regard to high exam outcomes. Seventy-five students from a premedical school were randomly attributed to an active lecture group, a cooperative group, or a collaborative learning group. The active lecture group received lectures with questions to resolve at the end of the lecture. At the same time, the cooperative group and the collaborative group had to work on a problem and prepare presentations for their answers. The collaborative group worked in a mostly self-directed manner; the cooperative group had to follow a time schedule. For the additional work of preparing the poster presentation, the collaborative and cooperative groups were allowed 50% more working time. In part 1, all groups worked on the citric acid cycle, and in part 2, all groups worked on molecular genetics. Collaborative groups had to work on tasks and prepare presentations for their answers. At the end of each part, all three groups were subjected to the same exam. Additionally, in the collaborative and cooperative groups, the presentations were marked. All evaluations were performed by two independent examiners. Exam results of the active lecture groups were highest. Results of the cooperative group were nonsignificantly lower than the active lecture group and significantly higher than the collaborative group. The presentation quality was nonsignificantly higher in the collaborative group compared with the cooperative group. This study shows that active lecturing produced the highest exam results, which significantly differed from collaborative learning results. The additional elaboration in the cooperative and collaborative learning setting yielded the high presentation quality but apparently could not contribute further to exam scores. Cooperative learning seems to be a good compromise if high exam and presentation scores are expected.     

The relationship between morningness-eveningness preference and online learning

This study explored whether circadian preference is related to students' attitudes and choices to attend lectures or watch them online, and whether these variables relate to course performance. The subjects were 847 students enrolled in an introductory psychology course who completed an online survey that contained the Morningness - Eveningness Questionnaire and that ascertained their attitudes towards online lectures and the extent to which they attended lectures or watched them online; course performance was also recorded. The results revealed that evening-type students were significantly more likely to have a positive attitude toward online lectures and to choose to watch lectures online. Course performance was not linked to morningness - eveningness preference, lecture mode choice, or their interaction. The results suggest that online lectures appeal differentially to students with a morning or evening orientation, but that watching lectures in a modality that does not accommodate a student's circadian preference does not handicap performance.     

Inquiry-based laboratory course improves students' ability to design experiments and interpret data

We redesigned our intermediate-level organismal physiology laboratory course to center on student-designed experiments in plant and human physiology. Our primary goals were to improve the ability of students to design experiments and analyze data. We assessed these abilities at the beginning and end of the semester by giving students an evaluation tool consisting of an experimental scenario, data, and four questions of increasing complexity. To control for nontreatment influences, the improvement scores (final minus initial score for each question) of students taking both the laboratory and the companion lecture course were compared with those of students taking the lecture course only. The laboratory + lecture group improved more than the lecture-only group for the most challenging question. This evidence suggests that our inquiry-based curriculum is achieving its primary goals. The evaluation tool that we developed may be useful to others interested in measuring experimental analysis abilities in their students.     

From field to gel blot: teaching a holistic view of developmental phenomena to undergraduate biology students at the University of Tokyo

We present here an outline of the lectures and laboratory exercises for undergraduate developmental biology students at the University of Tokyo. The main aim of our course is to help students fill the gap between natural history, classical embryology and molecular developmental biology. To achieve this aim, we take up various topics in the lectures, from fertilization and early development to developmental engineering. Our laboratory exercises begin with an introduction to the natural history of the organism. The entire class and the instructors collect newts in the field and discuss features of their mating behavior and so on. In the laboratory, students are absorbed by exercises such as a lampbrush chromosome preparation and an in vitro beating heart induction. After that, students choose their own research projects for which they will employ both classical embryological and modern molecular biological techniques. At the end of our course, the connectivity principle from field to gel blot will be part of the students' understanding.     

Student test scores are improved in a virtual learning environment

This study evaluates the effectiveness of delivering the core curriculum of an introductory neuroscience course using a software application referred to as a virtual learning interface (VLI). The performance of students in a virtual learning environment (VLE) is compared with that of students in a conventional lecture hall in which the same lecturer presented the same material. This study was not designed to determine whether grades are improved by augmenting a lecture with other information. The VLI takes advantage of audio, video, animation, and text in a multimedia computer environment. Our results indicate that raw average scores on weekly examinations were 14 percentage points higher for students in the VLE compared with those for students in a conventional lecture hall setting. Moreover, normalized test scores were over 5 points higher for students in the VLE. This analysis suggest that a core curriculum can be effectively presented to students using the VLE, thereby making it possible for faculty to spend less class time relaying facts and more time engaging students in discussion of scientific theory.     

An intense half-semester developmental biology course,as taught at Uppsala University,Sweden

This intensive course, designed for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, was first taught in 1995 at Uppsala University, Sweden, and consists of a half-semester (8-9 weeks) of daily lecture and laboratory sessions covering a broad range of topics and giving an overview of developmental biology and some of its applications. The labs introduce students to a diverse assortment of model systems. The course goals are to present a comparative view of animal development (gametogenesis, fertilization, gastrulation, neurulation, organogenesis), followed by lectures on cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate development, such as induction mechanisms, cell adhesion and migration, cell-matrix interactions and genomic imprinting. The development of complex systems, such as the nervous system, limbs and flowers, is emphasized, including aspects such as malformations, homeosis and mutant analysis, reproduction and fertility problems, and the connection between development and cancer. Model organisms are emphasized, but evolutionary aspects receive due attention. Typically, during the first 5 weeks, a day begins with lectures in the morning and ends with labs or demonstrations and seminars in the afternoon. Wednesday afternoons are "free" to give time for reading. A theory test is taken at the end of this period. Then, students do supervised research for 3 weeks to give them a feel for what it is like to do "real science." Finally, students present oral and written reports on their projects. This is the only course students enroll in during this portion of the semester, so they are expected to devote full effort to it.     

Introductory biology courses: a framework to support active learning in large enrollment introductory science courses

Active learning and research-oriented activities have been increasingly used in smaller, specialized science courses. Application of this type of scientific teaching to large enrollment introductory courses has been, however, a major challenge. The general microbiology lecture/laboratory course described has been designed to incorporate published active-learning methods. Three major case studies are used as platforms for active learning. Themes from case studies are integrated into lectures and laboratory experiments, and in class and online discussions and assignments. Students are stimulated to apply facts to problem-solving and to learn research skills such as data analysis, writing, and working in teams. This course is feasible only because of its organizational framework that makes use of teaching teams (made up of faculty, graduate assistants, and undergraduate assistants) and Web-based technology. Technology is a mode of communication, but also a system of course management. The relevance of this model to other biology courses led to assessment and evaluation, including an analysis of student responses to the new course, class performance, a university course evaluation, and retention of course learning. The results are indicative of an increase in student engagement in research-oriented activities and an appreciation of real-world context by students.     

Combination of didactic lecture with problem-based learning sessions in physiology teaching in a developing medical college in Nepal

Physiology teaching as an essential part of medical education faces tremendous criticism regarding curriculum design, methods of implementation, and application of knowledge in clinical practice. In the traditional method of medical education, physiology is taught in the first year and involves little interdisciplinary interaction. The Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Nepal (affiliated with the Kathmandu Univ.) started in 1994 and adopted an integrated curriculum drawn along the lines of the student-centered, problem-based, integrated, community-based, elective-oriented, and systematic (SPICES) medical curriculum. Here, physiology is taught for the first 2 yr of the 4.5-yr Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery course. Methodology adopted is as follows. For a particular topic, objectives are clearly defined and priority content areas are identified. An overview is given in a didactic lecture class to the entire batch of 100 students. Tutorial classes are conducted thereafter with smaller groups of students (25/batch) divided further into five subgroups of five students each. In these sessions, a problem is presented to the students as a focus for learning or as an example of what has just been taught. Each problem was accompanied with relevant questions to streamline the students' thought processes. A tutor is present throughout the session not as an instructor but as a facilitator of the learning process. A questionnaire sought students' opinion on the usefulness of this approach, relevance of the combination of problem-based learning (PBL) sessions and didactic lectures in understanding a particular topic and relating clinical conditions to basic mechanisms, and improvement of performance on the university final examination. The majority of the students opined that the combination of didactic lectures and PBL sessions was definitely beneficial regarding all the above-mentioned aspects of learning. The university results corroborated their opinion. Thus it may be considered that a judicious mixture of didactic lectures and PBL sessions is beneficial as a teaching module of physiology in medical schools.