The first part of the Medicine and Biomedical Sciences curricula consist of several similar learning paths that continue from the first until the sixth quarter. Every quarter ends with an exam for every learning path in which the students’ knowledge is tested on all of the topics that are covered. At the end of the fourth quarter, the exam will not just cover every topic in quarter four, but every topic from quarter one to four. An advantage of this method of testing will stimulate students to have this knowledge available at all times. A disadvantage is that it becomes a calculable risk to rely on their knowledge of the topics from quarter one to four when making the exam in quarter five. After all, a big portion of the questions will be questions covering topics from the first four quarters.
In the fifth quarter, the learning path Mechanisms of Health and Disease consists of seven modules. One of those modules is Tumours: patient, in which students will be introduced to oncology. There are not much contact hours available for this part, so the professor has created three cases. Every case will cover the diagnosis and treatment of a frequent form of cancer described for a specific patient. Students have to study these cases independently. The matter will be explained in depth and placed in a context. The lecturer teaching this module noticed that students were insufficiently prepared for the seminars, which caused a lack of interaction during the course. The lecturer suspected that the mediocre preparation of the course matter had something to do with the fact that the matter on oncology would be such a small part of the exam at the end of the course (one of seven subjects from one quarter in a test that would cover the matter from five quarters).
Working together with the lecturer, we have transformed the cases from text documents to an interactive online module in Brightspace which covers the topic step by step. Every step shows a bit of the subject matter and ends with a multiple choice question. With the correct answer, you will continue to the next text and question. If you answer incorrectly, you will receive a short feedback with a reference to the relating literature and you will return to the question to try again. Basic concepts that are mentioned in the module are linked to a knowledge database in the course. You can click the link to know more information about the subject. There is also the possibility to ask a question at every text and question. By clicking this, you can open a new tab in which you can formulate the question and send it. Your question will not be answered immediately, however, the professor can download the questions and cover them in the seminar. The questions are clustered for every step in the case, so the lecturer can see what topics were considered difficult by the students. This way, she can plan the seminar to cover these topics.
Students indicated that the cases provided a comfortable support with studying the literature and it motivated them to ask detailed questions about the subject matter.
- Labels: case_studies
- First published:
