Transcript Experiments with WebLearn tools in Medical Sciences

Experiments with Weblearn Tools in Medical
Sciences
Helen Christian
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
Year 1 Medicine at Oxford
The first year medical students sit their first professional
qualifying exams in week 9 of Trinity Term yet they are
taught a large number of new topics, including
‘Reproduction’, up to the end of week 6. The time
pressure and volume of material promotes surface and
passive learning.
65 lectures in Trinity term
CAL sessions alongside histology practicals have flexible
format
Interactive teaching with large groups
Are lectures effective?
Eric Mazur (2009) Large scale tutorial idea
Evidence for benefits of audience response systems in medical sciences
Use of the Weblearn polls tool in an interactive
revision session
Aims
1. empower the students to actively learn from
and
explore
their
understanding
of
reproduction through the questions in an
interactive quiz in a revision session
2. successfully use the weblearn poll feature to
display the quiz
3. to introduce the students to Mobile Oxford and
to use their mobiles to vote for answers.
Use of the Weblearn polls tool in an interactive
revision session
The day before: set up a
quiz of 27 ‘extended
match’ questions in
weblearn poll
On the day:
• Brief explanation of the aim of the session and where
to find the quiz, projected the weblearn poll page
• Distributed Mobile Oxford handout, staff on hand
Worked in groups or singly to complete the quiz
• Display of poll results and discussion
Results
those students
with internet
enabled mobiles
were very
enthusiastic
about the
Mobile Oxford
interface
Indicate the overall value of the session on a scale 0-10.
Score
7
Number 5
8
9
10
22
14
14
59/60 would like to use
Weblearn polls
interactive format in
future teaching.
What has been valuable for you in this session?
‘the session reassured me that I have good
knowledge of reproduction and highlighted
areas I need to work on’
‘good to learn how to use m.ox.ac.uk’
‘working in a group more thought went into
answers’
‘it was useful to identify common
misconceptions, why options were wrong
(via different votes) not just which ones
were right’
‘the mobile worked well, good clear
interface’
What could be improved?
‘mobile connection was very slow’
‘the cross used to mark the voting on my mobile
was confusing as I thought the answer was wrong’
‘if the correct answer was shown on poll
that would be helpful’
‘I want to do the quiz again as revision’
‘to have a personal score show at the end’
What could be improved?
to include images
‘survey’ tool has the advantage that can save
multiple ‘tests’ and re-use – mobile enabled in the
future
I like the ‘real-time’ nature – that discussion is led
by the direction of the answers.
UNIQ Summer School
Used a similar format in ‘mock’ teaching sessions in
Set advance reading, short lecture, then discussion
around questions in poll
‘Public poll’ as students did not have SSO
Next…
To use weblearn polls within a lecture.
Use the Edu-roam system for web access, introduce
to new intake
Study of the learning outcome?
Thanks to:
Jill Fresen, Fawei Geng
Damion Young, John Mason, Pauline Woolley