Evaluating the impact of an e-pathology course on student performance, learning and interaction
N.B. The information below is authored by the mini-project applicants, not by staff of the subject centre. This text represents the views and opinions of the mini-project team only, not those of the subject centre or its affiliates.
Full list of project partners
Liam O’Hare
Sue Morison
Shauna Hegarty
Kieran McGlade
Background
Background
E-learning research and practice in the field of medical education is growing internationally and at a rapid rate. Many universities are now developing e-learning resources to aid or replace traditional medical education. For example The Universities' Collaboration in eLearning (UCEL) developed by Cambridge University in partnership with the medical and nursing schools of four other universities. The Medical School at Queen’s University, Belfast has, like many other UK medical schools, recently increased its numbers of undergraduate students and geographical and timetabling problems have inhibited the delivery of a traditional lecture/ tutorial based course. As a result an e- course centred around digitally recorded mini-lectures is being introduced. The mini-lectures are supported by flash based self-assessment 'question and answer’ exercises. Each subject area is also complemented with e-based clinical case scenarios.
A new and innovative approach has been taken to the development of the e-pathology component of this e-course where the students’ learning experience is enriched by a series of 'live’ case based clinical-pathological conferences. These CPCs will be delivered by paired teams of consultant clinicians and pathologists and it is anticipated that they will ensure students understand why a sound knowledge of pathological processes is essential for clinical decision making.
Research into e-learning can be divided in to three categories; who is using e-learning resources, how can e-learning resources be delivered and what impact does e-learning have on the student learning experience. The proposed project will evaluate the latter by exploring the impact that the new pathology programme has on student development. The evaluation will compare two groups:
• group 1 will be 3rd year medical students from year ending 2007 who have gone through the traditional course
• group 2 will be 3rd year medical students from year ending 2008 that have gone through the new blended learning experience,
and will comprise of three elements.
Study 1 Comparison of student performance – This study will examine in cross-section exam marks between Group 1 and Group 2. Strategies will be employed to assess both groups as similarly as possible, including mirrored assessment methods and retention of the same external examiners.
Study 2 Impact on student learning – A battery of tests assessing student learning development will be given to group 1 and group 2 at the end of their respective years. This battery will include measures of student learning orientations, learning styles and perceptions of the learning-teaching environment (adapted from the ETL Project, Higher and Community Education, The School of Education, University of Edinburgh) as well as metacognition (MSLQ Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie 1991).
Study 3 Comparison of live versus recorded lecture – A questionnaire (Critical Interaction Analysis System, O’Hare 2007) will be used to gain student ratings on the interactive quality of a live lecture (group 1). These ratings will be compared to the ratings of group 2 when they view the same lecture in an online format.
Proposed activities
Collect data from group 1 Jun 2007
Enter data from group 1 Sep 2007
Collect data from group 2 Jun 2008
Analyse data from group 1 Aug 2008
Write up Sep-Dec 2008
Proposed outcomes
Aim of project
Outcomes - In the short term, this project will:-
• produce evidence of the effectiveness of a blended learning approach to pathology teaching and learning
• produce evidence of the impact the blended programme has on student performance and learning.
• identify the differences between live versus on line lectures in terms of students perceptions.
Benefits - In the longer term:-
• we will be able to share our experiences from developing and evaluating the e-pathology course with other subject areas within and outside medicine. Furthermore we will be able to demonstrate whether this form of course delivery is effective and necessary for the production of first rate clinicians in the 21st century.
Students involved
• From September 2007 there will be between 260 and 280 medical students registered in each year of the undergraduate medical course at Queen’s University, Belfast. Additionally there are approximately 45 dental students and up to 500 nursing students who could potentially make use of the e-pathology resource.
Dissemination
In order to raise the profile for this mode of delivery in medical education and in particular pathology it is intended that the results of the evaluations will be presented both at local and national meetings including those of the Association for Medical Education and The Pathological Society for Great Britain and Ireland. An expression of interest in our project has been informally received from some members of the educational committee of The Pathological Society. This development of e-learning in pathology is timely as the use of electronic learning technologies is also currently being evaluated at graduate level by the Royal College of Pathologists for both F1 /F2 as well as SpR trainees in histopathology.
Production of report for the HEA
Publication of findings in an international journal
Proposed expertise
Jacqueline James is a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Histopathologist and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is the pathology subject matter expert and currently co-ordinates the traditional lecture /tutorial based course. She is a founder member of the School of Medicine and Dentitsry e-learning group and has had primary responsibility for the production of the Microsoft producer video lectures and the development of electronic pathology teaching and learning materials.
Liam O’Hare is Specialist Education Research Fellow in the Centre for Excellence in Interprofessional Education. He is a consultant teaching and research psychologist and has researched teaching and learning in Higher Education for over 8 years. He has contributed to the HEA on a number of occasions, particularly within the psychology division delivering workshops, presenting at conferences (PLAT 2004 & 2006) and publishing within the HEA (O’Hare & McGuinness; PLAT 2005).
Sue Morison is Director of the Centre for Excellence in Interprofessional Education (NI) and lectures on the medical and dental programmes at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB). The main focus of her research is healthcare education and particularly curriculum development and assessment. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Subject Specialist Advisor for the Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine subject centre. As well as publishing widely in the area of healthcare education she has also presented her work at a variety of national and international conferences including the recent International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference in Washington.
Shauna Hegarty is a pathology trainee and Clinical Teaching Fellow. She has experience of interactive e-learning and has established web based resources for teaching neuropathology and respiratory pathology to undergraduate medical students. Her interests are in student assessment and course evaluation; and development of on-line resources in undergraduate medical education.
Kieran McGlade is a Senior Lecturer and Principal in General Practice. He is deputy Director of Medical Education at Queen’s University, chairs the medical school expansion committee and has overall responsibility for the introduction of the new third year curriculum. He leads the medical school’s eLearning group and has spear-headed the concept of introducing eLearning and video lectures to not only cope with expanded student numbers but to actually enhance the student learning experience.
Expertise of grant holder and project team
Jacqueline James is a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Histopathologist and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is the pathology subject matter expert and currently co-ordinates the traditional lecture /tutorial based course. She is a founder member of the School of Medicine and Dentitsry e-learning group and has had primary responsibility for the production of the Microsoft producer video lectures and the development of electronic pathology teaching and learning materials.
Liam O’Hare is Specialist Education Research Fellow in the Centre for Excellence in Interprofessional Education. He is a consultant teaching and research psychologist and has researched teaching and learning in Higher Education for over 8 years. He has contributed to the HEA on a number of occasions, particularly within the psychology division delivering workshops, presenting at conferences (PLAT 2004 & 2006) and publishing within the HEA (O’Hare & McGuinness; PLAT 2005).
Sue Morison is Director of the Centre for Excellence in Interprofessional Education (NI) and lectures on the medical and dental programmes at Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB). The main focus of her research is healthcare education and particularly curriculum development and assessment. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Subject Specialist Advisor for the Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine subject centre. As well as publishing widely in the area of healthcare education she has also presented her work at a variety of national and international conferences including the recent International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference in Washington.
Shauna Hegarty is a pathology trainee and Clinical Teaching Fellow. She has experience of interactive e-learning and has established web based resources for teaching neuropathology and respiratory pathology to undergraduate medical students. Her interests are in student assessment and course evaluation; and development of on-line resources in undergraduate medical education.
Kieran McGlade is a Senior Lecturer and Principal in General Practice. He is deputy Director of Medical Education at Queen’s University, chairs the medical school expansion committee and has overall responsibility for the introduction of the new third year curriculum. He leads the medical school’s eLearning group and has spear-headed the concept of introducing eLearning and video lectures to not only cope with expanded student numbers but to actually enhance the student learning experience.
Similar work
We feel that the e-based part of our blended pathology course will complement the existing web-based learning support resource provided by PathCal. The PathCal online tutorials help users gain an understanding of basic pathological processes but they have some important limitations. PathCal is not adaptable nor is not downloadable in different formats for use offline. The web based platform we have designed to host our minilectures (created using Microsoft producer software) provides students with downloadable, portable learning objects and facilitates the use of direct links to additional learning support resources including PathCal and The Internet Pathology Laboratory. Our e-course will be easily adapted if necessary perhaps following student feedback or as a result of curriculum changes; making this new course sustainable in the long term.
The use of video in medical education is not new and there are a number of web-sites using video clips to address medical topics including www.filamandsound.ac.uk however, we have established an extensive series of complementary self assessment questions and answers to further enrich the students learning experience. These video lectures and self assessment materials could be shared with other users. The project team intend to facilitate sharing of components within the e-pathology course using a repository such as Jorum. The video recordings in this e-pathology course are not recordings of clinical patients and therefore the guidelines in the Cherri Report are not thought to apply to this learning resource.
Contact details
Amount awarded: £3955
Subject centre project contact: Megan Quentin-Baxter
Reports and resources
Reports and articles will appear here once avaliable
