the science behind engaging students in class

Kevin A. Clauson, PharmD

The Science

Behind Engaging

Students in Class

Which College are you

representing today?

1. Arts and Sciences

2. Business

Administration

3. Education and

Human Development

4. Health Sciences

5. Pharmacy

6. Graduate Studies

Which best describes your

formal training on how to teach?

1. Modeling based on observing professors

2. Periodic faculty development after becoming a teacher

3. Teaching certificate/track in residency/postdoc

4. Education degree

5. Other

What best describes your use of

an audience response system?

0%

0%

0%

0%

0% 1. I have never considered using clickers

in my class

2. I have considered clickers, but never

tried them in class

3. I use clickers sometimes in my classes

4. I use clickers frequently in my classes

5. I should probably be teaching YOU

about clickers

Objectives

1. Discuss underlying causes and treatments

for lecturalgia

2. Discuss communication and visual design

concepts including dual channels, split

attention effect, and cognitive load

3. Explore the benefits and hurdles with an

audience response system (ARS)

4. Formulate a plan to increase student

interaction and engagement with ARS

What is Lecturalgia?

1. Endangered species

of microplankton

2. Type of nail fungus

3. Word from Greek for

„painful lecture‟

4. Word I just made up

Med Educ 2001;35(12):1135-42.

Causes of

lecturalgia

Poor

organization

The Craft of Scientific Presentations

Poor judgment

Poor

delivery

Pipeline

(unidirectional)

Beyond Bullet Points, 2008.

Pipeline

Beyond Bullet Points, 2008.

No

learning

Fragmented

learning

Meaningful

learning

“My Time” vs “Our Time”

Be flexible in your approach

Avoid educational constipation

Which type of memory has the

most limited capacity?

1. Sensory

2. Working

3. Long-term

Sensory Long-termWorking

Three Types of Memory

Psychol Rev 1956;63(2):81-97.

Nat Rev Neurosci 2003;4(10):829-39.

Sensory Long-termWorking

Three Types of Memory

Psychol Rev 1956;63(2):81-97.

Nat Rev Neurosci 2003;4(10):829-39.

Mental

processing

Mu

ltim

ed

ia L

ea

rnin

g, 2

00

9.

Co

mp

utE

duc

20

03

;41

:77

-86.

Step 1

Put words into

auditory working

memory and

images into

visual working

memory

Co

mp

utE

duc

20

03

;41

:77

-86.

Step 2

Organize

information

separately in

auditory and

visual memory

Co

mp

utE

duc

20

03

;41

:77

-86.

Step 3

Integrate

representations

with prior

knowledge

Dual Coding

Mind and Its Evolution, 2007.

Visual Channel

Audio Channel

Lack of channel synchronicity

Lack of channel synchronicity

Split attention effect

Lack of channel synchronicity

Split attention effect

Increased cognitive load

We can speak at ~ 125 words per

minute (WPM), but we read at:

1. 25 WPM.

2. 125 WPM.

3. 150 WPM.

4. 200 WPM.

5. >250 WPM.

Putting all of the text on the screen of what

you will say and then essentially reading

that text is the surest way to induce the

redundancy effect which basically means

you are presenting the same information at

the same time via both visual and audio

channels so you force the working memory

of the students to work twice as hard to

reconcile those two sources of information

leading to cognitive overload which

ultimately impairs learning

J Educ Psych 2001;93(1):187-98.

Perfect storm created that

reduces learning

Multimedia Learning, 2009.

The perfect marriage of audio and visual can enhance conceptual recall

Co

gn

itiv

e L

oa

d, 2

01

0.

However, slides containing

text with unrelated or visually

discordant images could

negatively affect learning

J Am Soc Info Sci 1996;47:437-48.

Pastry chefs: a

brief history

(maybe if the topic

was pasty chefs…

or Vitamin D

deficiency)

When considering lecture

delivery and its visuals…

Design. Do Not Decorate.

How many slides should you

have for a 60 minute lecture?

0%0%0%0%0%

15 45 60 75 Other

1. 15

2. 45

3. 60

4. 75

5. Other

Symptoms of lecturalgia to

watch for…

Tinnitus

Loss of consciousness

Suicidal

ideation

And of course…

texting

How Do We Fight

Lecturalgia?

Revista de Informatica Aplicada 2009;5(1):51-60.

Solutions to treat lecturalgia are

not always clear

BMC Med Educ 2003;3:12.

Gamble that what you‟ve always

done still works?

Sometimes it‟s best to dive right in

ARS to

fight

lecturalgia

Proceedings 2008 (4709-4717).

Transitioning from…

QJM 2004;97(1):47-51.

Sage on the Stage eSocrates

Use as part of a

blended approach

to teaching

Ultimately, it‟s just

one more tool

When was ARS introduced

into medical education?

1. Early 1970s

2. Early 1980s

3. Late 1980s

4. Late 1990s

First generation student clicker

Mayo Clin Proc 1973;48:294-7.

Mayo Clin Proc 1977;52:556-60.

College Faculty Use of ARS

8%

13%

79%

Don't know what it is

Use it some

Never use it

Source: Faculty Survey of Student Engagement 2009

How frequently do you need to

reengage your audience?

1. Every 3 minutes

2. Every 7 minutes

3. Every 20 minutes

4. Every 30 minutes

Every

Minutes

Student

populations are

increasingly

diverse with

accompanying

differences in

learning styles

Customize the learning experience

Strategies for implementing

ARS in the classroom

What ARS strategy are you

MOST looking forward to using?

0%

0%

0%

0%

0%

Medical Teacher 2008;30(2):146-9.

1. Factual questions to evaluate outside readings and content

2. Conceptual questions to drive discussion

3. Linkable pre- and post-test questions

4. Creating questions on the fly to gauge student understanding

5. Real-time course evaluations

Additional ARS Strategies

Am J Pharm Educ 2008;72(4):77.

Assess participation/attendance

Administer low stakes quiz/OSCE

Elicit opinions on

sensitive topics

Analyze data generated and

map to objectives/outcomes

Use ARS to vote on

student presentations

ARS and crowd behavior

IEEE International CCA 2007;658-663.

Types of

What type

of bacteria

is this?

1. Staphylococcus

2. Streptococcus

3. Meningococcus

What color is the cerebellum?

1. Blue

2. Green

3. Purple

4. Red

5. Yellow

What color elicits the strongest

placebo effect for depression?

1. Green

2. Red

3. Yellow

4. Pill color does not

alter response

BMJ 1996;313:1624-26.

Which course would be most useful

to prepare students for this patient?

Which course would be most useful

to prepare students for this patient?

1. Communication Skills

2. Drug Delivery

Systems

3. Pharmacognosy

4. Pharmacokinetics

5. Therapeutics/

Pathophysiology

Which country has the largest

number of English speakers?

1. China

2. England

3. India

4. South Africa

5. United States

English Mania

Hurdles

with ARS

What will the biggest hurdles be

here for using ARS?

0%

0%

0%

0%

0% 1. Maintenance costs

2. Requirement to modify teaching style

and existing lecture

3. Student resistance to change

4. Technology malfunctions

5. Time investment by faculty to learn

software and hardware

Let‟s take a look at the literature

ARS in pharmacy schools

Use of ARS in

Molecular Biology &

Physical Chemistry Courses

Am

J P

harm

Educ

20

09

;73

(2):

21

.

98% (n=109)

responded that ARS

helped pay attention

Am J Pharm Educ 2009;73(2):21.

Silver medal questions must

be answered solo by

students

For credit: 80% of the class

must answer correctly

Gold medal questions can be

answered collaboratively

For credit: 90% of the class

must answer correctly

Am J Pharm Educ 2009;73(2):21.

Detour

Alternative

Grading

Schemes

Ahead

Percentages of ARS

questions answered

Participation

Points

100%-80% 5

79%-65% 4

64%-50% 3

Less than 50% 0

Sydneyeve Matrix

Hybrid ARS

Grading

Dr. Russell James III

*Previous 2 years student

evaluations (4 pt scale)

Mean course grades increased:

2006 (81.8; p<0.001)

2007 (86.1; p<0.05)

compared to 2008 with ARS (89.9)

No difference between ARS and

non-ARS performance in

Pathophysiology and Therapeutics with

memorization exam items

ARS group performed better (82.5%)

than non-ARS group (77.4%) (p=0.002)

with analytical type exam questions

Use of ARS in Cancer Module

Am

J P

harm

Educ

20

08

;72

(2):

38

.

Focus groups assessed ARS

Pilot study using ARS to

connect three campuses

Survey Item SA/A

(%)

U

(%)

SD/D

(%)

Use of ARS encouraged

me to participate in class

89.8 5.1 5.1

Because of ARS I

participated more than I

usually do

84.5 4.5 11.0

I valued that ARS let me

respond anonymously

93.2 3.4 3.4

The use of ARS made

some topics clearer

72.0 15.4 12.6

The use of ARS was

distracting

12.0 11.4 76.6

SA=strongly agree, A=agree, U=unsure, SD=strongly disagree, D=disagree

What GAPS exist in the literature?

ARS outside of the classroom

Use of ARS for paperless

live CE sessions

J C

on

tin

Ed

uc

He

alt

h P

rof

20

03

; 2

3(2

):1

09

-115

Int

J N

urs

Pra

ct

20

10

;16

(3):

26

8-7

3.

Data collection at nursing

conference with ARS

Using ARS to educate patients about

online health information seeking behaviors

Google Health Wikipedia

Where do

we go from

here?

In healthcare – if

you didn’t document

it, then you didn’t

do it

In education – if

you didn’t assess it,

you might as well

not have done it

Pay attention to the details

Have you viewed

“Death By PowerPoint”?

0%0%

Yes No

1. Yes

2. No

Free Recommended Resources

www.ted.com

www.slideshare.net www.derekbruff.com/teachingwithcrs

www.flickr.com

Recommended Resources

Summary Points

• ARS is one tool in our arsenal to increase

student engagement

• Proactively managing the hurdles with

ARS and integrating educational theory

may result in a better learning experience

• Benefits associated with ARS have been

demonstrated but additional research is

still needed

Expanded slide deck can be found at:

www.slideshare.net/kclauson

Images

• http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/312658/june-17-2010/obama-s-simplified-bp-oil-spill-speech

• htttp://www.youtube.com

• http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/

• http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2073/2264195999_c4cc2c9ef7.jpg?v=0

• http://www.philipcoppens.com/socrates_2.jpg

• http://www.villaware.com/Product.aspx?pid=1506

Images

• http://dclips.fundraw.com/zobo500dir/ornamental_s_7.jpg

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacelion/2295706021/sizes/l/in/photostream/

• http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all

• http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jay_walker_on_the_world_s_english_mania.html

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCl3-PId8

• http://worldbreastfeedingweek.net/wbw2008/images/silvermedal_back.JPG

• http://media.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/the_state_worker/gold%20medal.jpg

Images

• http://blog.taragana.com/n/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/piaggio-mp3-hybrid-scooter-1.jpg

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/30211781@N04/3937853319/sizes/l/in/photostream/

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/valuecarenurses/149314448/sizes/l/

• http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/uploads/2007/03/1292945_360x249.jpg

• http://www.slideshare.net

Unreferenced images are

licensed stock photography

Thank you for your time!

@kevinclauson unhub.com/kevinclauson