Supporting Large Group Teaching: the use of two complementary interactive learning strategies

Introduction

Large student numbers and limited staff time dictate a traditional delivery style of imparting knowledge, within most higher education institutions. The varied modes of entry into degree and higher diploma courses also mean that student background knowledge in basic sciences can range from advanced to no prior knowledge. This presents new challenges to teaching large groups and supporting the needs of all students (Henly and Reid, 2001).

In the School of Biology, Chemistry and Health Science (BCHS) at MMU, lectures in Immunology constitute part of the Physiological Systems module within a number of degree and HNC courses at level 1. Five lectures are delivered to Level one students, covering basic aspects of Immunology, hence providing the foundation for extended study at levels two and three. The mode of entry into both degree and HNC courses is varied and includes direct entry from secondary schools and colleges, Access, Foundation and BTEC courses, or entry as mature students. As a result, students have varied background knowledge of Biology and/or Chemistry, ranging from GCSE to Advanced levels. In addition, the score for recruitment of mature full-time undergraduates at MMU is well above average (HESA, 2004). Students are taught as part of a single large group constituting degree or degree plus HNC students.

Within Biomedical Science teaching, there has been much interest in strategies that allow the incorporation of active learning into the traditional large group lecture (Klein, 2001; Hoag, 2005). One such interactive teaching method is the use of lecture-integrated case studies. These involve the use of a single or multiple case study scenario, that is incorporated into a single traditional style lecture. Evidence suggests that case studies, per se, can increase student attention and motivate students to learn more (Davis and Wilcock, 2005). Indeed, this has been demonstrated to enhance memory and is an essential ingredient to encourage self-directed learning (reviewed in Steinert and Snell, 1999). As Exley and Dennick (2004) propose, the use of metaphors/scenarios can ‘..bring together conceptual understanding and reasoning with real-life, relevant issues’ . Nonetheless, when used in isolation, the case study approach may not be sufficient to address the issue of diverse student academic backgrounds. The world-wide web with its plethora of information through specialist websites represents one important resource that can be explored to support student background knowledge (Henly and Reid, 2001). However, knowledge acquisition by students may be a challenging task, not least because computer and internet-based key skills are recognised nationally as important areas for development in the undergraduate curriculum (Scott, 2005; Tariq and Cocrane, 2003). In the last issue of Learning and Teaching in action Peters, Jones and Matthews elegantly identified Infoskill’s “5 steps to success”, based on key skills required to make an information literate student.

By utilising the University’s virtual learning environment (VLE), WebCT, we adopted two complementary teaching strategies that allowed the incorporation of interactive learning into the traditional teaching curriculum. These were enquiry based learning (case studies) and web (resource) based learning. By placing a truncated version of a case study on the VLE forum, students were prompted to answer questions using supporting web-links to websites containing background/further information. The overall aim of the study was to support all students, irrespective of academic background, by encouraging self-directed learning.

 

Methodology

Student participation in the present study was from four different programmes as follows: three BSc degree level courses: Biomedical Science (BMS), Biological Science (BS), and Clinical Physiology (CP), and one HNC course (Applied Biological Science) (HNC-ABS). CP and HNC-ABS are taken by students in full-time work who attend MMU on a day release basis. As such, students attending these two courses were grouped together for the purpose of analysis. The BMS students were taught as one group, whilst the BS, HNC and CP students were taught as another separate group. Overall student number for both degree and HNC entry was 264. An initial needs analysis defined the students’ perception of their level of confidence in information retrieval and IT skills. Most students were unfamiliar with Bioscience search engines, while over half the students were not confident in carrying out searches on the web.

The strategies were implemented during the winter term of 2006 (Table 1).

Table 1: Outline of the use of strategies per lecture

Lecture	Strategy
1,2,3	Traditional face-to-face lecture
3	Reference to web-links
4	Use of mini case study
5	Lecture-integrated case study + web-links

 

Initially, lectures 1, 2, and 3 were taught in the standard traditional fashion. During lecture 3, however, students were referred to a list of useful links to websites (posted on Web-CT) that covered background information relating to the subject matter. A mini case study was included in the second half of lecture four, in order to familiarise the students with the style of the lecture-integrated case studies. At the end of the lecture, students were instructed to access the first part of the case study to be implemented in lecture 5 (Table 2).

Table 2: Case study for lecture 5

Case Part No	Topic: The structure and function of antibodies
1 The Case	The case: Susan was celebrating her graduation with her friends. They went to a restaurant and Susan ordered the Chef's Special: 'Chicken Gourmet: cooked with lemon, chopped nuts and herbs'. Ten minutes after eating her food, Susan felt sick. She soon left the table. She had a bout of diarrhoea. Susan's friends were alerted to her condition when 15 minutes later, she didn't return to the table. Susan had fainted. An ambulance was called and Susan was taken into hospital.
	What was the Doctor's diagnosis of Susan's condition?
2 Questions	Questions: Was the chicken not cooked well? - Salmonella poisoning? How does our immune system protect us against gut microbes?

 

Additional web-links were also provided on WebCT to help answer the questions in the case study. Lecture 5 was designed to provide a full lecture-integrated case study. Hence the latter was divided into three parts, with questions at the end of each (Table 3). Students were encouraged to attempt these questions within the classroom by working in pairs (buzz groups) for 2-3 minutes.

Table 3: Case study integration - lecture 5

Lecture title: The structure and function of antibodies
Sequence of delivery	Topic
1	Description of basic structure of antibodies - IgG
2	Description of basic function of antibodies
3	Case study part 1 - Case description
4	Case study part 2 - Questions
5	Basis of gut immunity - IgA, structure of IgA
6	Antibody responses to microbes, structure of IgM
7	Case study part 2 - Recap on Questions
8	Case study part 3 - Laboratory results, - Case study solved!
9	Description of the structure and function of IgE

 

To evaluate the strategies, the following were assessed: (a) Student perception of the usefulness of the implemented strategies. (b) Student access of the web supported material (by tracking the number of “hits” on the WebCT area). (c) Student performance in the summative assessment both in relation to web-link access and in relation to A level grade (Pearson’s Correlation coefficients).

The assessment of student perception of the usefulness of the strategies utilised an evaluation questionnaire, interviews and focus groups (2-3 students per group). Questionnaires were based on a Likert scale that included the following: very useful, useful, no difference, not useful, did not access (Figure 1: Evaluation questionnaire).

Figure 1: Evaluation questionnaire

 

Results

a. Students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the strategies.

1. Evaluation questionnaire

The total questionnaire return was 29 (out of 117) for the Biomedical Science degree (BMS) group, and 46 (out of 147) for the Biological Science degree (BS) and HNC/CP group.

The evaluation questionnaire revealed that the majority of students found the case study useful (or very useful) in helping understand the subject matter. Indeed, those students who had good background knowledge of Biology (A level) found the case study as useful as those without A-level (GCSE level): 96% vs 100% and 100% vs 89% for the BMS and BS groups respectively. Overall usefulness was similar for both the BMS and BS groups (97% vs 96% of students). Despite this, few students said that they had attempted to solve the case study prior to the lecture.

Most BMS students found web-links for the third lecture useful or very useful, while only half of the BS students did so (79% vs 50%). As these web-links were intended to support students with basic (GCSE) knowledge in Biology, we were interested in their usefulness for this group. Indeed, they were more useful for the GCSE than the A level group (83% vs 78% and 58% vs 44% for the BMS and BS students). Similarly, web-links for lecture 5 were more useful for the BMS than the BS group, although within each group, both the GCSE and A level groups found them just as useful. The number of students accessing web-links was 65% and 50%, respectively (Figure 2). None of the students found any of the strategies ‘not useful’. A minority of students found that they made ‘no difference’ to helping them understand the subject matter, while the rest had not accessed them at the time the questionnaire was distributed.

The ‘Glossary’ was found to be useful or very useful for both the BMS and BS students (86% and 80% respectively). The remaining students did not access the list. For the BMS group, more of the GCSE students found the list useful than did the A level students (100% vs 83% respectively), but was similar for the BS group (79% vs 81%). (Figure 2)

Figure 2: Percentage of students who identified the individual strategies to be useful or very useful,
for BMS (A), and BS (B) students.

 

2. Focus groups

In the focus groups, students reported finding the case studies very useful. One student commented:
‘It’s a real life concept. People enjoy problem solving. You feel like a doctor – it gives you a sense of accomplishment’.

In terms of the dynamics of integrating the case study during the lecture, students appreciated working through the case study and the fact that it was presented as a ‘cliff-hanger’ in three parts (Steinert and Snell, 1999), facilitated, and interspersed between factual information. Although some students did not access the web-links, those students who did, found them very useful, not least because it saved them having to search for the information themselves. As some students put it:

‘you couldn’t do it any better, reaching out to all the people. You direct students to where they should be looking’; ‘it can save hours of work’; ‘you can spend a lot of time looking for stuff and it might be all wrong’.

In terms of student preferences for the different strategies, some students seemed to prefer the integrated case study approach because it was ‘analytical’. Others preferred accessing web-links because they were more generally useful for a number of other modules, whereas the case study was specific to that particular lecture.

In terms of classroom mechanics, lectures 4 and 5 were more interactive than lectures 1-3. This was most visible in lecture 5. Students were less inhibited about answering questions when prompted. Some students quickly arrived at the answers when facilitated to do so.

 

b. Students’ access of the information

Web-link usage was evaluated by identifying the number of times the file containing the link was ‘hit’ by students on the WebCT (Table 4). The lecture handouts were ‘hit’ at least once by nearly all students. This was either before or after the relevant lecture, and often shortly before the final examination.

Table 4: Total number of WebCT hits for students from all four courses (n=264)

Support Material	Number of 'Hits' (% of group)
Web-links for lecture 3	108 (44%)
Web-links for lecture 5	62 (24%)
Glossary	73 (30%)
Solved Case study (Lecture 4)	61 (25%)
Solved Case study (Lecture 5)	28 (11%)

 

c. Students’ performance (summative assessment):

Summative test scores for students were analysed in relation to web-link access. A brief summary is shown below:

1.Overall performance in summative assessment – comparison between groups:

1. HNC/CP students achieved highest mean test scores.
2. BMS degree students achieved similar mean test score to HNC and CP students
3. BS degree students were the poorest performers.

2. Relating overall performance to Web-link access.
Do the web-links support student learning? Our results showed the following (Figure 3):

Figure 3: Mean percent summative test score for students who accessed, and those who did not access, the web-links, for each of the groups tested

1. The group of students who accessed web-links achieved consistently higher test scores (both in the Immunology questions and the module as a whole), than those who did not, irrespective of their course of study.
2. For BMS degree students, web-link access seems of most benefit to students with good background in Biology (A level).
3. For BS students, web-link access seems of most benefit to degree students with limited background in Biology (GCSE/other), as well as HNC/CP students.

3. Relating exam performance to A-level grades:

1. Comparison between grades of students within the BMS and BS degree courses: For the A-level entry BMS degree students, most students (n=67 of 68) had attained an A-level in biology (grades A-E, average=C-D) and over half (n= 44 of 68) had attained an Al-level in Chemistry (grades A-E, average E), while for the A-level entry BS degree students, most students (n=73 of 74) had attained an A-level in biology (grades A-E, average=C-D) and few (n= 31 of 74 ) had attained an Al-level in Chemistry (grades B-E).

    

2. Comparison between exam performance and A-level grades: The results indicated that the BMS students’ examination performance in the Immunology section and in the module as a whole, did not relate to either the Biology or Chemistry A level grade. This is true for the whole group and for those who accessed the web-links. However, for the BS students, there does seem to be a positive relationship between examination performance and the A level Biology grade, for the Immunology section and this is highly significant for the performance in the module as a whole (Table 5).

    

3. Test scores for last year’s student cohort- summer 2005 taught in the traditional teaching style: the mean mark for students on BMS Course was improved by 6% (n=25 students randomly selected).

Table 5: Relationship between test scores and A-level grades (Biology and Chemistry)

Course	BMS		BS
A-level subject	Biology	Chemistry	Biology	Chemistry
Total group	0.082 (0.185)	0.217 (0.242)	0.307 ** (0.469) **	0.112 (0.077)
Accessed web-links	0.014 (0.087)	0.241 (0.304)	0.314 (0.809) *	0.885 ** (0.732)
Did NOT access links	0.276 * (0.331) *	0.309 * (0.264)	0.304 ** (0.445) **	0.043 (0.010)
Numbers in parentheses indicate the correlation coefficient value for the whole unit. * p<0.05       ** p=/<0.01

 

Discussion

In the present study, we identify the lecture-integrated case study approach as a useful teaching strategy in supporting students in a large group setting. Furthermore, when supplemented by web-based learning, these strategies also support students with diverse academic background. Indeed, such active learning and problem solving shown through attempts to solve the case study and access supporting web resources may represent necessary first steps towards self-directed learning.

The majority of students perceived the case study to be useful in helping them understand the subject matter, irrespective of their academic background, despite the fact that only a proportion of them had attempted to solve the case study prior to the lecture. Within the class setting, the student response to the implementation of the lecture-integrated case study was very encouraging. Students were more responsive and interactive rather than passive in the learning process (Ramsden, 1999). Although many students had found ‘Immunology’ a difficult topic, with much factual information, they seemed to value the case studies because as a result, they were ‘able to put the facts together’. This supports the importance of contextualisation for an effective learning experience (Willmott, 2005). In addition to increasing attention and motivation, case studies have also been shown to promote ‘higher order thinking’, such as analysis, problem solving and decision making (reviewed in Steinert and Snell, 1999). Within Bioscience disciplines, many studies have supported the role of case studies in promoting active learning and problem solving (Klein, 2001; Hoag, 2005; Walters, 1999). Case studies have been implemented in a number of formats, either interspersed between lectures, as a group (5-6) activity within a clinical immunology course (Hoag, 2005), or used as a truncated case-stimulated session within Endocrine Physiology lectures (Walters, 1999). The latter format is distinct from the one utilised in the present study in that the author used single or multiple case studies that were sometimes ‘carried over’ to the next lecture to provide continuity of information. Within our school, Immunology at level 1 constitutes a very short block (5 lectures) within the whole Physiological Systems module. Time constraint has thus meant that we only integrated one case study into a single lecture. The influence of case study on students’ critical thinking was not assessed in the present study, since multiple choice questions were based on factual recall (appropriate for level one student). Previous studies have shown that although case studies did not significantly improve student performance on critical thinking questions, they were nonetheless identified as a valuable tool in improving student attendance and interaction (Hoag, 2005). Critical thinking and problem solving require time to allow for ‘reflection’ and ‘knowledge construction’ (Race, 2001). In the present study, we attempted to promote this through placing the case study on WebCT prior to the assigned lecture.

Although most students were computer literate, and had all received library induction during the first weeks of their programme, they were not always aware of the range of search engines available, nor any websites to support their learning. Hence, most students found web-links useful, irrespective of academic background. It is not clear why web-link 3 was accessed more than web-link 5, which was intended to complement the case study strategy. Nonetheless, those who did access the web-links, found that these links did help in solving the case study. In terms of supporting the needs of students with no/limited background knowledge of Immunology, those students who accessed the web-links achieved higher test scores in Immunology and in the module as a whole. More BMS students found these links useful than did BS students. Our finding that web-link access correlated with overall exam performance is consistent with current literature. For example, use of web supported material has been shown to increase overall student scores in a large class setting (Henly and Reid, 2001).

It is not clear whether the web-links per se had helped students gain better marks, or whether the students who used them were more self directed anyway. Our results show that the Immunology section mark correlated with the overall module mark, suggesting that the latter may be true. However, we do not believe that such correlation is causal, for two reasons. First, due to the spread in marks, and second, the fact that more motivated students would have looked up information anyway, even in the absence of web-links, but that the latter will have saved them much valued time in searching for the information. Exam performance (test scores) in the Immunology section and in the module as a whole, did not relate to either the biology or chemistry A level grade. The student’s ‘want/need’ and motivation may thus be sufficient to fuel self-direction (Race, 2001) and improve exam performance. As expected, this is true for students attending the more vocational courses with a clear career path and structure (HNC/CP and BMS students).

The execution of the two strategies in the present study was facilitated by the use of WebCT. The use of VLEs has become a very valuable tool that enables the execution of a number of teaching and learning strategies within higher education. These include the provision of tutorials, lecture notes and support material. For example, in her evaluation of WebCT as a medium to support Immunology instruction, Cunningham (2002) has provided a number of recommendations to improve usage. Hindrances, such as student software incompatibilities may have contributed to limitations in WebCT use in the present study that are worth noting for the future.

In conclusion, the execution of strategies in the present study was a most rewarding experience for the instructor. Indeed, an instructor’s enthusiasm, empathy and engagement, represent some of the key ‘E’s necessary for successful implementation of any teaching strategy (Willmott, 2005). Interaction within the lecture helped establish dialogue and identify any misconceptions in understanding of subject matter. Student comments during ‘focus groups’ were also most informative in evaluating the strategies. Findings from this study encourage the wider implementation of such complementary strategies to support large academically diverse groups within higher education.

 

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dr. Ian Kay, School of BCHS, MMU for support with material delivery through WebCT, and Dr. Ann Barnett for help in questionnaire delivery. We are grateful to all the students who participated in this study. One author (M Azzawi) also wishes to thank Patricia Wood and staff at the Teaching and Learning Centre and Centre for Continuing Education, University of Manchester, for providing support and guidance on this project, which was conducted in part requirement for the postgraduate certificate in teaching and learning in higher education.

 

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