Download Dr Manasi Nandi Senior Lecturer Pharmacology King`s College

Promoting and sharing excellence in HE teaching
Dr Manasi Nandi
Senior Lecturer Pharmacology
King’s College London
Overview
Common Year One BSc.
Large group wet lab
practical teaching
(420 students)
In vivo training Msc.
(15 students)
Final year BSc. decision
making skills
(70 students)
Disclaimer: RCT has not been conducted to assess efficacy of teaching interventions.
Qualitative/feedback and scoring will be used to describe impact of changes.
Large group practical teaching
Common year one….the problems
CYO large number of students (~420)
…but we need to provide wet lab experience
– Motivate and excite
– Develop conceptual and theoretical knowledge,
visualise and affirm theory
– Develop manual dexterity, understand nature and
methods of science
– Develop independent scientific enquiry, theorise,
generalise, critique, hypothesise.
(Kerr 1963, Hodson 1998, Woolnaugh and Allsop 1985)
Consolidate
lectures on ‘drugs
and ‘receptors’
Hands on
pharmacology
expt. and data
handling
Complement
computer aided
learning
“Is it to get a
feel for the lab
environment?”
Guinea pig ileum
Organ bath
Characterising receptor
antagonists
“Is it about animal
testing and using
research animals?”
“ To know what you
are getting yourself
into if you wish to
do a research
career?”
Focus groups pre-lab practical
• Previous experience of other lab classes:
• “I remember better if it is something I actually did. I
‘know’ but now I ‘understand’”
• “If you have a positive experience it helps you to
remember”
• “If you make a mistake, that’s all you remember…”
• “If it is well explained where you went wrong, then you
correct yourself and you learn more…otherwise you
just focus on why it went wrong”
• “But sometimes different tutors say different
things...confusing”
Structure of the class – before changes
Set up
Intro
Expt
• Staff set up ~30 organ baths with guinea pig ileum, check tissue
viability, software, hardware
• Staff make up serial dilutions of drugs
• 60 students per class
• Verbal introduction to practical
• Explanation molar concentrations/doses calc. etc
• Students shown experimental set up on each bench
• Work in pairs – dose calculations
• Then give agonist, antagonist – collect data
• Analyse individual and class data and write report
Focus group…post lab practical
“Boring to have everything set up”
“Would have been cool to watch somebody set it up”
“After 10 minutes, I suddenly clicked that this was
about the computer based exercise”
“I struggled with calculations, didn’t really know what
we were supposed to know….everyone tapping on
calculators and I felt left behind….”
“I’ve never been in such a lab before, there were lots
of different things going on all around”
Blended learning – videos to aid
teaching and learning
Experimental set up
Practical preparation of
drug solutions/dilutions
Theoretical preparation of
drug solutions/dilutions
“I really enjoyed watching the video and it is definitely great
preparation for the practical. I know I would have benefited
if it had been available last year… as I am a visual learner”
Lessons learned – changes made
• Clearly explain intended learning outcomes in
both the course book and within class
• Maximise chances of experiment going to plan
• Provide means for students to see how
experiment was set up
• Provide method to aid with numeracy, drug
dosing, data handling etc.
• Provide training for all tutors/support staff
“In vivo” experimental skills training
Translational research
• Multiple concepts incl. ethics, handling,
anaesthetic, complex surgery, data
interpretation, welfare, Home Office
regulations etc….
• Technically challenging surgical techniques
• Often complex data interpretation e.g. stress
artefacts
Cardiovascular
system theory
Give
protocol
Too much information?
What skills do we actually want the students to leave with?
Data acquisition
& analysis
Interpretation
cardiovascular
theory
Soufflé in a day?
…or teach principles of baking – preparation, identifying hazards,
problem solving, troubleshooting….
• “If you have a positive experience it helps you to
remember….
• ….if you make a mistake, that’s all you remember…”
•
In 1-2 days students are unlikely to be fully
competent in specific technique…
• There’s no ‘real life’ situation where detailed in
vivo surgery training would not be provided
until employee is competent
• Biological variability in class, flawed set up will
result in ‘imperfect data’ distracting students
from ILO. Is manual dexterity less important?
 Are methods of science, experimental design,
theorise, hypothesis generation more
important/relevant?
(Stevens and Sewell 1993; Hodson 1993)
Specific
biological
concepts
Experimental
design, sample
size estimates,
blinding,
randomisation
Data
handling,
analysis,
statistics
In vivo
research
tools/
techniques
Regulation,
ethics, welfare
Using blended learning before and during class to introduce multiple concepts
Cardiovascular
system theory
Cardiovascular
system theory
Students
research
topic in
class
Give
Protocol,
students follow
Students design
experiment in
class
What does the
HOL allow?
FLIP CLASS
Data acquisition
& analysis
Hand experimental
design and ethical considerations
over to students
How will you
analyse data?
Students run
their expt.with
tutor
Interpretation
cardiovascular
theory
Interpretation
cardiovascular
theory
Too many concepts?
Students miss ILO
To be tested….watch this space.
Using smart phones in class – aiding
students with information sourcing
Courtesy of David Byrne, King’s College London 2014-2015 poll but in line with global data – android devices currently on increase
Developing skills in decision
making….
…without any wet lab hands on
experience
Drug Safety and Toxicology
• Final year BSc.
• 30 credits; 70 students
• Academia, pharma, clinicians, regulatory expert
lectures
• Risk: benefit ratio and patient demographic critical
Group A
Decisions and
conclusions
3 candidates,
choose 1
95% overall student satisfaction 2014-2015 intake
Numeracy
2012
31% A grade
2014
58% A grade
Student
confidence/understanding
2012 = 68 students
2014 = 66 students
“Dragon's Den exercise was very practical and
interesting - not like anything I'd done before!
“…..helped to increase my
evaluating experience and
teamwork.”
“Dragons den - really interactive way of
consolidating information, great to be able to
talk to experts first hand”
“Brought everything together wonderfully!”
“as an MBBS student I learnt a lot from
working with other BSc students”
“Was a very good way of
understanding concepts that
may have been difficult to
understand alone”
2014/15 Student Feedback 6BBM0310
“Having really enjoyed the Dragon's Den I am
now considering applying for graduate
internships and jobs in the drug
safety/regulatory affairs area”
“Bang on, forced you think what things
actually meant”
Final lessons learned
• Reduce in class delivered material and repackage
• Online tools should be introduced and used/explained by
tutor. Bespoke – including Q&A, instant feedback etc.
• Small group practicals-consider flipping classroom and get
students to design the experiment rather than telling them
what to do – this may help consolidate ILO
• Numeracy- identify weaker students through short
exercises and run small group bespoke teaching
• Provide training for all tutors, support staff - knowing an
experiment is not the same as teaching it!
• Quantify efficacy of our teaching interventions with same
scientific rigor as applied to our research.
Acknowledgements
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KCL Pharmacology Teaching Department
Sue Brain
Ian McFadzean
Lawrence Moon, Aileen King, Simon Pitchford
Jude Hall (E-learning tool developer; Drug Safety module
co-developer)
KCL Technology Enhanced Learning:
Jerome DiPietro, Vanessa Skiadelli, David Byrne
KCL Learning Institute:
Gabe Reedy
Independent film makers/editors
….and all of our students…..
Google and Powerpoint images used throughout