Teaching Matters

Presentation 2 TR

Back to program

Teaching Matters 2018 | Presentation Details | 2018

Title

Researching medical students' learning outcomes and engagement with bespoke online dissection audio-visual resources


Author(s)

Derek Choi-Lundberg, School of Medicine
William Cuellar, School of Medicine
Anne-Marie Williams, School of Medicine


Subtheme

Excellent teaching is founded on and contributes to scholarship


Presentation Type

Presentation


Room

Tamar Room


Time

11.25-11.40


Abstract

Laboratory practical sessions have a high cognitive load and are resource-intensive; therefore, supporting student learning from these sessions is paramount. We undertook a scholarship of learning and teaching (SoLT) project with the goal of improving our medical students’ preparation for and learning from dissection laboratory practical (DLP) sessions.

We used an action research framework to develop and evaluate dissection audio-visual resources (DAVR) tailored to our DLP sessions and delivered flexibly through the university’s learning management system (MyLO). In the first three years of the project, learning analytics data from MyLO indicated DAVR were accessed by an average of only 28% of all students prior to the corresponding DLP session, representing at most 58% of assigned dissectors. By the conclusion of examinations, 50% of students had accessed all available DAVR, while 10% accessed none. Number of DAVR viewed correlated positively with scores on summative practical examination questions relating to cadaveric anatomy (with 7% to 12% higher scores for those accessing all DAVR vs none), but not with other scientific disciplines.

One cohort of students was surveyed about DAVR, which yielded several suggestions for improvement. We actioned some of these over the next few years, including developing formative quizzes and redeveloping DAVR to improve the quality of labelling of anatomical structures. We also advised students of our research findings in the hope of encouraging increased usage of DAVR. The presentation will highlight findings of this SoLT project, particularly ongoing patterns of student engagement with DAVR and correlations with learning outcomes.

Back to program