Discussion boards for teaching clinical case scenarios in an MSc module: a case study from LSTM

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Ralf Weigel & Alex SpiersUniversity of Liverpool Teaching & Learning Conference 2016

Discussion boards for teaching clinical case scenarios in an MSc module

Background• Module 938, compulsory for MSc Clinical Sciences students• 3 months, 1st Semester • 16 students • 9 Overseas, 7 Home/EU• 10 topics (HIV, TB, …)• For each topic, clinical case scenarios with questions released

via Brightspace 5 days in advance to complete prior to contact time

• Students post answers in Discussion board• Contact time: topic lead presents and discusses with students,

also accessess students threads cc: Radarsmum67 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/65811939@N00

Rationale for the study

• BB & Campus Pack Blog• No tracking• Diminishing

engagement

• New interface• Post First functionality• OneDrive integration• Student tracking available

How to get students engaged in prior learning with clinical case scenarios using a new feature of discussion boards within the VLE? ?

Photo by Kalexanderson - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/45940879@N04

Methods & findings

HierarchyTopic (e.g. Malaria)

Case 1

Q 1

A 1

A 2

Q 2

A 3

A 4

Q 3

A 5

A 6

Case 2

Q 1

A 7

A 8

A 9

Q

2

A 10

Q 3

A 11

A 12

Q 4

A 13

A 14

A 15

Case 3

Q 1

A 16

A 17

A 18

Q 2

A 19

A 20

Q

3

A 21

Q 4

A 22

A 23

Q 5

A 24

A 25

A 26

Summary statistics2014 (15 students) 2015 (16 students)

Topics 10 10

Cases 43 43

Questions 215 221

Answers posted 208 2338

Answers expected 3225 3536

Response rate: Posted/expected

6% 66%

Response rate: posted/expected answers 2015 and 2014

HIV TB Diarrhoea Resp health Malaria Neurology MNH NTD Anaemia NCDwk 1 wk 2 wk 3 wk 4 wk 5 wk 6 wk 7 wk 8 wk 9 wk 10

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Posted/expected answers 2015 Posted/expected answers 2014

Summary stats by students(2015 only)

Overall Median (IQR) per student

Min Max

Answers posted 2338 (16 students)

142 (115, 179) 53 221

Reads of others‘ answers

503 (13 students)

13 (6, 37) 0 158

Replies 63 (10 students)

1 (0, 7) 0 17

Average mark in % (exam 1 + 2)

80 (76, 84) 65 95

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“The discussion board for answering case discussion was a really great tool. It made answering the questions all the more fun.”

1

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“Many of the case studies were very helpful ways of approaching topics and issues.”

2

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“I think the case discussion preparation was helpful to learning.”

3

Photo by Marc Wathieu - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/88133570@N00

“Clinical cases, and the possibility to read the other students' answers and approaches was very interesting.”

4

Limitations• Small sample• Purely descriptive• Quality of postings not

assessed • Post Graduate level

Summary• New model has increased participation• All engage in DBs, although to a different degree• Posts > reads > replies• Popular, seen as beneficial by students• Activity decreases over time

Photo by mhaithaca - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/79715083@N00

By using a new technical option in Brightspace and modifying our approach, we were able to radically transform the engagement levels with the case studies. Resulting in high-quality responses and a positive change in terms of learning gains.

Conclusion

Thank youQuestions?

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