The Impact of Interactive Tools within Lectures in Medical Education

Background: Traditional didactic lectures in medical curriculum are used to transmit lots of information in a short time frame but evidence shows that student attention lapses after 15-20 minutes into a lecture. Along with this, there is a concern that deep understanding of topics is often missed in favour of fact retention. In this study, I am interested in finding out student perception of the use of interactive tools within lectures and whether the use of such tools encourages active learning, improves understanding and helps students retain knowledge. Summary of Work: Two lectures were delivered to Year 1 MBChB students, one using interactive tools including electronic voting, real time discussion boards and polling software, and one without any interactive tools. Student opinion of these was evaluated using a questionnaire and focus group. Summary of Results: Students felt the use of interactive tools made the lecture more interesting and helped them stay focussed during the lecture. It allowed them to check that they understood the topic being presented and they were in favour of being able to compare their answers to the rest of the class. Discussion and Conclusions: Asking and answering questions using interactive tools during lectures facilitates the development of deep, active learning and knowledge creation, and gives students the feeling that they are contributing to their own learning. Take-home messages: The use of some interactive tools within lectures is welcomed and can have a positive impact on knowledge and understanding

Aston University's Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Roadshow: raising awareness and embedding knowledge of AMR in key stage 4 learners:raising awareness and embedding knowledge of AMR in key stage 4 learners

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global healthcare problem and therefore raising awareness within young learners is imperative. An AMR roadshow was designed to take key stage 4 students' learning ‘out of the classroom’, assess pre-existing knowledge of AMR and determine the impact of the roadshow on knowledge retention. Knowledge and subsequent retention were measured pre- and post-event through a standardised questionnaire. The roadshow significantly improved knowledge and understanding of AMR, which was retained for a minimum of twelve weeks. Engaging and interactive strategies addressing key health issues provide a positive learning experience which contributes to retained knowledge in young learners

Faux-Flipping a Supportive Housing Training: Lessons from Pandemic Adaptations

Following March 2020 coronavirus closures, the Community Support Services training initiative for supportive housing providers transitioned to fully remote learning. Training remotely, the trainers developed a faux-flipped model of midtraining interactive video lectures alongside videoconferencing with time for active learning through interactions and activities. There were benefits to training remotely using a faux-flipped model, including increased participation, training retention, and self-evaluated knowledge. After improved training results, the faux-flipped recorded video lectures will remain in future training. The coauthors suggest additional research to elaborate the faux-flipped model and assess its impact on learning and engagement

Implementing Immersive Virtual Reality in an Aviation/Aerospace Teaching and Learning Paradigm

The ubiquity of computing technology has revolutionized the workplace and has also had a significant impact on education. The use of interactive simulations based on virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) has gained wide acceptance and become a prominent mechanism for learning to occur. Interactive simulations may afford unique learning advantages revealed as effective knowledge retention and skill transfer when information is presented using multi-modal sensory approach. The goal of VR is to create an environment that mimics real world complexities; one that offers comparable stimuli in the virtual environment (VE) to elicit cognitive and psychomotor behavior in the learner, similar to those elicited when performing the same function in the live-task environment. To be effective, practitioners must understand the fundamental elements of cognition and knowledge construction. VE designs must be grounded in theoretical learning constructs to accentuate the cognitive learning process. As part of a cooperative research project within the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, we present our research in developing a highly-immersive, state-of-the-art VR laboratory to train students on complex flight aviation and maintenance related tasks. Development for VR applications is underway as a proof of concept test bed. The lab also supports an F/A-18 Hornet VR part-task trainer that simulates the aerial refueling process; a Head Mounted Display (HMD) enhances fidelity and training realism. Spaceflight Operations students regularly utilize a VR experience of the International Space Station (ISS), Mission ISS, to explore spaceflight concepts often reserved for astronauts

The Development and Design of an Interactive Digital Training Resource for Personal Tutors

This chapter details the development and design of an interactive digital training resource for personal tutors in the Arts Faculty at the University of Warwick in 2018. The Arts Faculty Personal Tutor Training Resource aimed to enhance staff and student experiences of personal tutoring. The training was designed and delivered through the open-source learning design tool H5P within the University of Warwick's Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle. The training resource content is delivered through a mixture of text, images, videos and links to further resources which introduce learners to personal tutoring policies, structures, processes, support, and best practice. The resource also contains interactive activities that enable learners to condense their learning, reflect on their personal tutoring knowledge and practice, and see their progress as they move through the different stages of the training. The resource was designed to be interactive to make the content as engaging as possible for learners and to promote the retention of knowledge. It was also designed with different learners' levels of digital literacy and accessibility needs in mind. This chapter outlines the context of the training's development, and the pedagogic approaches, methods and principles that informed the learning design. It also provides an account of the design process and a description of the training content. This case study demonstrates the value of online training and resources for supporting personal tutors by showing the positive impact that the Arts Faculty Personal Tutoring Training Resource has on staff and student experiences of personal tutoring at the University of Warwick. It also shows that personal tutors welcome online training and resources, and that online training is often preferred to face-to-face training because it can be used and accessed according to the requirement of users at any time

A review of ten years of implementation and research in aligning learning design with learning analytics at the Open University UK

There is an increased recognition that learning design drives both student learning experience and quality enhancements of teaching and learning. The Open University UK (OU) has been one of few institutions that have explicitly and systematically captured the designs for learning at a large scale. By applying advanced analytical techniques on large and fine-grained datasets, the OU has been unpacking the complexity of instructional practices, as well as providing conceptual and empirical evidence of how learning design influences student behaviour, satisfaction, and performance. This study discusses the implementation of learning design at the OU in the last ten years, and critically reviews empirical evidence from eight recent large-scale studies that have linked learning design with learning analytics. Four future research themes are identified to support future adoptions of learning design approaches

Gamification techniques for raising cyber security awareness

Due to the prevalence of online services in modern society, such as internet banking and social media, it is important for users to have an understanding of basic security measures in order to keep themselves safe online. However, users often do not know how to make their online interactions secure, which demonstrates an educational need in this area. Gamification has grown in popularity in recent years and has been used to teach people about a range of subjects. This paper presents an exploratory study investigating the use of gamification techniques to educate average users about password security, with the aim of raising overall security awareness. To explore the impact of such techniques, a role-playing quiz application (RPG) was developed for the Android platform to educate users about password security. Results gained from the work highlightedthat users enjoyed learning via the use of the password application, and felt they benefitted from the inclusion of gamification techniques. Future work seeks to expand the prototype into a full solution, covering a range of security awareness issues

Access and retention: experiences of non-traditional learners in higher education: final report: public part

This final report will primarily be of interest to those working in the higher education (HE) sector across Europe and beyond. Within higher education institutions it will be of especial interest to senior management and policy makers, middle managers responsible for programmes, lecturers, researchers, those working in student support services, admissions and widening participation initiatives as well as students themselves and the Students’ Unions. It is also aimed at policy organisations and bodies working in higher education, such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in England, Government departments and EU policy makers. The project focused on access, retention and drop-out in higher education institutions in relation to non-traditional students (younger and adults) on undergraduate degree programmes and the factors which promote or inhibit this. With the growth of mass higher education systems retention has become an important and rising concern for policy-makers at national and European levels. It is considered a measure of efficiency of higher education with implications in terms of the needs of the economy and as a return on investment to individuals, society and the whole EU. It is also a key factor in promoting a growing diversification and equity across the higher education sector. By ‘non-traditional’ we mean students who are under-represented in higher education and whose participation in HE is constrained by structural factors. This includes, for example, first generation entrants, students from low-income families, students from (particular) minority ethnic groups, mature age students, and students with disabilities. (This definition takes into account issues of class and gender). We were particularly interested in looking at and understanding why some students from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds learn effectively, assume an undergraduate learner identity and complete their degree successfully while others from similar backgrounds do not. We were also interested in identifying the learning, teaching and support processes which help non-traditional students to become effective and successful learners. Institutional cultures and structures also impact on a learners’ identity so these aspects were also explored and examined

Big data in higher education: an action research on managing student engagement with business intelligence

This research aims to explore the value of Big Data in student engagement management. It presents an action research on applying BI in a UK higher education institution that has developed and implemented a student engagement tracking system (SES) for better student engagement management. The SES collects data from various sources, including RFID tracking devices across many locations in the campus and student online activities. This public funded research project has enhanced the current SES with BI solutions and raised awareness on the value of the Big Data in improving student experience. The action research concerns with the organizational wide development and deployment of Intelligent Student Engagement System involving a diverse range of stakeholders. The activities undertaken to date have revealed interesting findings and implications for advancing our understanding and research in leveraging the benefit of the Big Data in Higher Education from a socio-technical perspective