Using live interactive polling to enable hands-on learning for both face-to-face and online students within hybrid-delivered courses.

Tertiary institutions are increasingly providing hybrid delivery options to students, requiring course coordinators to migrate formerly face-to-face curricula into frameworks that suit online teaching. However, there is a risk that the implementation of hands-on, engaging activities will decrease during hybrid sessions due to staff uncertainty of their effectiveness across the varied cohorts. This presents a need to identify engaging modes of instruction that can remain equally engaging for learning regardless of the students’ enrolled mode of delivery. Interactive polling has the potential to be used within a class in real-time and allow both face-to-face and online students to take part in an in-class activity at the same time. This study aimed to compare the effects of interactive polling within either a face-to-face or online delivery format. One-hundred and seventy-four participants studying first-year health science and medicine completed a live interactive poll using the Kahoot! platform in either a face-to-face (n=72) or online (n=102) hybrid-delivered subject. Experiences and perceptions were provided as written responses and a Likert scale survey. Participant responses were positive, with three themes emerging, including interactive polling being enjoyable, engaging, and valuable for learning. Across cohorts, participants rated interactive polling highly, and perceived that it offered an effective learning and revision tool. This study found that interactive polling using Kahoot! maintains its suitability as a method of instruction across both face-to-face and online learner cohorts. The finding that it remains equally effective across both delivery modes provides evidence-based support for its use in hybrid or blended subject offerings

Incorporating Mixed Reality for Knowledge Retention in Physiology, Anatomy, Pathology, and Pharmacology Interdisciplinary Education: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Disease education is a fundamental component in health science and medicine curricula, as it prepares students for their progression into health profession careers. However, this requires an ability to integrate concepts across multiple disciplines. Technology-enhanced interventions may bridge this gap, and this study assessed the effectiveness of a textbook-style or a three-dimensional mixed reality (MR, a hybrid of augmented and virtual reality) HoloLens resource for student learning and knowledge retention using asthma as a model of disease. Sixty-seven first-year undergraduate health science and medical students were randomized into two groups to complete a lesson on the physiology, anatomy, pathology, and pharmacology of asthma, delivered through either a textbook-style (n = 34) or MR (n = 33) resource. Participants took part in the study in small groups and completed the intervention and surveys in separate areas of a large laboratory space. A pre-test prior to the lesson included multiple-choice questions, with the post-test having additional multiple-choice questions to assess learning. A follow-up test to assess retention was performed two weeks later. Pre- and post-test scores revealed increased learning across both the textbook (p = 0.001) and MR (p = 0.05) interventions, although higher test results were obtained by those using the textbook-style resource (p < 0.05). There was no difference between groups in knowledge retention scores. Although the textbook-style resource was more effective for increasing test results, participants perceived MR as more favorable, highlighting the experience as enjoyable and useful. This study presents MR as an option for integration in cases where educators wish to enhance student enjoyment of the learning experience. However, the results suggest that traditional text-based resources persist as a fundamental delivery mode within a modern curriculum