Student evaluation of Tablet PC use for Biomedical science lectures

J.K. Choate1 and G. Kotsanas2, 1Lecturer, Department of Physiology,

School of Biomedical Sciences; 2Academic Director - Information Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and

Health Sciences.

2010 Australasian Tablets in Education conference

The Biomedical science unit • BMS2031 (Physiology)

• lecturers (4) used Tablet PC

• one lecturer = own Tablet PC

• 3 lecturers loaned Tablet PC and attended a training session

• technical support provided in lecture theatres

Project aim:To evaluate how BMS2031 students perceived the use of Tablet PC technology by their lecturers.

Method:Anonymous paper-based surveys (lecture slot, final week semester).

Student survey (n=104, 49% response):

When the lecturer used a Tablet PC in class it made the lecture more interesting and engaging:

5 = strongly agree4 = agree3 = neutral2 = disagree1 = strongly disagree

score 4.1 ± 0.1

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

% o

f re

spo

nd

en

ts

When the lecturer used a Tablet PC in class it improved my understanding of the lecture content:

5 = strongly agree4 = agree3 = neutral2 = disagree1 = strongly disagree

score 3.9 ± 0.1

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

% o

f re

spo

nd

en

ts

When the lecturer used a Tablet PC in class it helped me to keep up with the pace of the lecture:

5 = strongly agree4 = agree3 = neutral2 = disagree1 = strongly disagree

score 3.9 ± 0.1

Strongly disagree

Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

% o

f re

spo

nd

en

ts

Briefly comment on what you thought were the best aspects of the program...

Echo (revision,

annotations)

Writing, diagrams, drawing

Slowed lecturer

Improved understanding of the lecture

More interactive

and/or engaging

0

5

10

15

20

25

Nu

mb

er

of s

tud

en

t re

spo

nse

s

Suggestions on how the program could be improved in the future...

Lect

urer

train

ing a

nd/o

r pra

ctise

Mes

sy w

riting

Too m

uch

highli

ghtin

g

Lect

ure

note

s with

ann

otat

ions

and

diagr

ams

Mor

e dia

gram

s an

d dr

awing

s0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Nu

mb

er

of s

tud

en

t re

spo

nse

s

• overall, a positive experience for students

• coupled together with Echo lecture recording = overwhelmingly popular (especially for revision)

• more lecturer practise and training

Summary of student survey:

What did the 2nd year Biomedical science lecturers think of their Tablet PC lectures?

Aims = To investigate if the transition from ppt lectures to Tablet PC lectures caused lecturers to significantly alter their:

a) lecture preparationb) deliveryc) contentd) student lecture notes

Methods = Anonymous paper-based surveys (7 responses from 16 lecturers)

Survey of 2nd year BMS Tablet PC lecturers 2010:

Why did you choose to use the Tablet PC for lecturing?

Num

ber

of

lect

urer

s

Adequ

ate

supp

ort a

nd tr

aini

ng w

as p

rovid

ed b

y the

Mon

ash

myL

earn

ingS

pace

It allo

wed m

y lec

ture

s to

beco

me

mor

e in

tera

ctive

I thou

ght it

mig

ht im

prov

e stu

dent

atte

ndan

ce a

t lectu

res

It gav

e m

e th

e op

portu

nity

to re

vise

and

revie

w my c

urre

nt le

cture

s

I wan

ted

to u

se n

ew te

chno

logy

I like

d th

e id

ea o

f usin

g a

digi

tal p

en in

stead

of a

lase

r poi

nter

It was

a fr

ee ta

blet

com

pute

r0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

How did you prepare your Tablet PC lectures?

Did you alter your lecture content when lecturing with the Tablet PC?↓ number of slides (4) ↓ main lecture concepts (3)↓ number of lecture objectives (3) replaced digital images with hand-drawn images (4)new digital images (5) altered images (5)

6 used existing ppt lectures, 1 created new lectures

table

t lec

ture

s ea

sy to

pre

pare

easy

to s

et u

p ta

blet l

ectu

res

in th

eatre

eas

y to

use

the

table

t dur

ing p

rese

ntat

ion

conf

ident

abo

ut u

sing

table

t for

lect

ure

withou

t tec

hnica

l sup

port

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.7

3.8

3.9

Ave

rag

e le

ctu

rer

ratin

g

Using the Tablet PC for lecturing:

5 = strongly agree4 = agree3 = undecided2 = disagree1 = strongly disagreen=7

4 44

4

Did you have any technical problems that interfered with the [Tablet] lecture presentation? Yes (5)

• the image on screen was not the same as on the Tablet

• the pen software was unreliable

• sometimes I had to go back to ppt, which was disheartening

• the expanded screen didn’t work in all lecture theatres

• the Tablet stopped working

• I could not go to the animations on the web easily..so I flipped between the Tablet/CP3 and the computer to do this

If given the opportunity, will you use a Tablet PC for lecturing in 2011? Yes (7)

Will you change your lecture preparation, delivery or lecture notes provided to the students?

• increase the interactive component (3)

• more drawings and diagrams on whiteboard (2)

• will try to be more creative with inking

Summary of lecturer survey:

Most of the lecturers altered existing ppt lectures, either reducing content or altering/replacing images

Most of the lecturers had some technical problems with their Tablet PC presentations

All would use a Tablet PC for lecturing in the future.

Future = lecturer-student mode

Acknowledgments: • BMS2031 lecturers and students• MyLearningSpace Project Team• Lecturer survey = Dr Monika Zimanyi and BMS lecturers• Ethics approved by the Monash University Committee for Human

Experimentation