Moderated by Anna Blenda

PRESENTATION 1 - Improving the Effectiveness of Combining Voice-Over PowerPoint Presentations and Review Games for Delivering Basic Science Content to Medical Students.    
Pranshul Goel    
California Northstate University

PURPOSE As flipped-classrooms and online teaching become more prevalent in the teaching community, there is a need to determine the effectiveness of these methods. The goal of the project is to improve the combined delivery of voice-over PowerPoint lectures and review games to increase student engagement and learning while evaluating the potential of this pedagogy.

METHODS Medical students were assigned voice-over lectures prior to in-class or online learning sessions, in which teams of students answered practice exam questions in the form of review games. Students provided both quantitative feedback using a Likert scale as well as suggestions on how to improve the delivery of this pedagogy. The participating students were divided into groups that were exposed to either the voice-overs, review games or both, followed by formative questions on the material.

RESULTS In general, students preferred that practice questions were embedded within voice-overs and favored multiple short voice-overs over long voice-overs for a given subject. In addition, the students provided feedback that they also preferred having a brief question-and-answer review of the main points of the voice-over before starting the in-class review game.

CONCLUSION Overall, students preferred this particular active learning pedagogy over traditional lectures. In addition, the feedback received from students through this ongoing study will continue to be incorporated into the session to improve the delivery of combining pre-assigned voice-overs with the in-class review games.  We are not currently able to assess whether voice-overs or review games are more effective at increasing student performance, but this important question will be addressed in future studies. In conclusion, this study has provided beneficial feedback to enhance the delivery of an active learning pedagogy that can be adapted for either in-class or online learning sessions and is relevant to both undergraduate and graduate-level basic science students.

PRESENTATION 2 - "and the Answer Is!..." Comparing Delivery Modalities of a Game-based Learning Session in Health Professions Education    
Andrew Darr    
University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria

PURPOSE Game-based learning (GBL) is considered a reasonable alternative to traditional teaching methods.  While well-designed GBL sessions have been shown to promote high levels of engagement and dynamic group discussion among learners, some faculty within health professions education continue to view GBL with skepticism.  In this study, we explored different delivery modalities of a single GBL session and evaluated the effects on short- and long-term knowledge retention, as well as student satisfaction and engagement.

METHODS We designed a GBL session based on the popular gameshow 'Jeopardy!' for a second-year medical neuroscience course at a tri-campus medical school.  The GBL session was delivered differently at each campus: synchronously with game elements; asynchronously using a web-based application; or synchronously without game elements using the web-based application. All learners were evaluated at one week (formative assessment) and ten weeks (summative assessment) post session for short- and long-term knowledge retention, respectively.

RESULTS Learners who participated in the synchronous GBL session with game elements had higher scores on formative and summative assessment items compared to learners receiving either of the other two modalities. Learners in the synchronous GBL with game elements group reported high levels of engagement, as well as high levels of satisfaction with the format and a strong preference over traditional lectures.

CONCLUSION The present study suggests that participation in synchronous GBL sessions with game elements may correlate with greater success on subsequent assessments related to concepts covered in those sessions, as well as foster perceptions of higher levels of satisfaction and engagement among participants. In addition, learners indicated that being in-person made it much easier to review challenging concepts during the live session.

PRESENTATION 3 - Patients as Trainers: Impact of Patient Encounters on Osteopathic Medical Students Understanding of Socioecological Determinants in Type 2 Diabetes    
Martha Faner    
Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine 

PURPOSE At Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM), we have developed a novel approach, called patient-as-a-trainer (PAT), to increase student awareness of the role socioecological factors have on T2DM patients and provide them with an early clinical experience. We aim to understand how having pre-clerkship medical students interact with a T2DM patient trainer affects their understanding of the impact social and economic factors have on T2DM patients.

METHODS This is a qualitative study using a grounded theory approach where students were interviewed using questions designed to investigate their thoughts and feelings on the relationship between socioecological factors and T2DM. A team of student researchers solicited, scheduled, and conducted thirty interviews after a session in 2020 and another in 2021. As a team, students and faculty will parse the transcribed interviews to identify themes and define a theory that explains how using T2DM patients to train students affects their understanding of how socioecological factors influence T2DM patients.

RESULTS Preliminary results indicate that following the PAT session, students recognize the stigmas associated with T2DM and the importance of social and economic factors in disease management. They value the knowledge that the patient shared and see it as unique compared to what can be learned from reading a textbook/article or listening to a lecture. Students found the patient visit to be an important supplement to learning about the basic science and clinical aspects of the disease in lecture. Interestingly, they did not express any negative impressions of the webinar format compared to the intended in-person experience.

CONCLUSIONS Following the PAT session, students conveyed an understanding of the complexities of living with T2DM. They found the interaction to be an important addition to material previously presented in readings and lecture.