Currently, students in biomedical programmes in Bristol have regular small group tutorials in which students practise the skills required to be able to interpret data and solve problems. It is increasingly difficult to resource academic support for small group teaching in higher education. In an attempt to deal with this issue, a pilot study was conducted that tested whether tutor-led tutorials for level 1 students could be replaced in part by computer-based exercises. The objective of the pilot study was to determine whether computer-based tutorials can provide an effective learning environment for level 1 biomedical science students, as previous studies have arrived at no clear consensus (Lee, 1997; Miller et al. 1997; Ogilvie et al. 1999; Reid et al. 2000).
Cardiovascular physiology was the topic chosen for the pilot study. Multiple choice and data interpretation problems were devised and prepared for delivery via the web using Toolbook Instructor II, version 8.0 (http://www.Click2learn.com). This approach was chosen because of the flexibility of design that the application offered.
Two groups of students (A & B) of approximately equal numbers (~40) were involved in the study. Both groups had access to the same learning materials. Group A used the learning materials with the aid of the computers and their textbooks (an academic tutor was present). Group B used the learning material in their usual small group tutorial.
At the end of the session, both groups completed the same assessment exercise (MCQ and data interpretation), the results of which constituted one strand of the evaluation. The evaluation compared the learning outcomes of the two groups for each session, as well as comparing student interactions during the group sessions and gauging student reactions to the experience.
Learning outcomes – How well do students understand the subject area? The average scores (± S.E.M. for n observations) for the exit test taken by students who had had a traditional tutorial was 73.1 ± 2.3 % (n = 38) compared with 75.3 ± 2.7 % (n = 32) for students who had had the computer-based tutorial. There was no significant difference (Mann-Whitney U test, P = 0.425) between these scores.
The demonstration, which can be accessed at:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Physiology/ugteach/
ugindex/v1 index/cvs 01/index.html
will provide an opportunity to sample the tutorial material and to experiment with the application used to develop it.
- Lee, C.S.C. (1997). Teaching and Learning in Medicine 9 (2), 111-115.
Miller, A.P., Haden, P., Schwartz, P.L. & Loten, E.G. (1997). Acad Med. 72 (12), 1113-1115.
Ogilvie, R.W., Blue, A.V. & Trusk, T. (1999). Acad Med. 74 (5), 574-575.
Reid, W.A., Harvey, J., Watson, G.R., Luqmani, R., Harkin, P.J. & Arends, M.J. (2000). J. Pathol. 191 (4), 462-465.