Speaker
Description
Active learning puts students at the heart of their learning experience enabling them to become more engaged with their own learning building knowledge through their own experiences (Friedrich et al, 2019). Staff-student partnerships have been shown to enhance educational practice and have students taking a more active role in decision-making (Cook-Sather et al, 2014). To improve engagement of students with online modules a co-development project was conducted to develop educational escape rooms allowing students to be involved with the development of clues for a drug delivery module. Educational escape rooms are effective pedagogical tools used to develop students’ knowledge and skills and have been positively received by students, increasing knowledge and serving as a platform for teamwork (Kinio et al, 2019).
This study involved third year MPharm students at Ulster University. Questionnaires and consultations were conducted to gather student opinions on online delivery and the use of educational games. Co-design sessions were conducted which involved students indicating parts of lectures they thought were important for understanding of the topics. Questions were developed by students which were then further developed by staff into clues and hints which would be suitable for an escape room requiring understanding of material and application of knowledge to progress.
Educational games have been shown to improve learning by stimulating student interest and motivation through social interactions with educational content. By developing questions the students have shown they can identify the important parts of the lecture which could be used when completing the coursework.
Ongoing development of questions/clues is continuing to ensure development of escape rooms that improve student understanding of complicated concepts and also to make them fun which should improve engagement with the lecture material.
This study fits into the theme of ‘collaborating with students’ and has shown that the students enjoyed the process of working with academics and understanding why certain information was included in lectures.
References
Cook-Sather, A. (2014) Student-faculty partnership in explorations of pedagogical practice: A threshold concept in academic development. International Journal of Academic Development, 19(3), 186-198.
Friedrich, C., Teaford, H., Taubenheim, A., Boland, P. and Sick, B. (2019) Escaping the professional silo: An escape room implemented in an interprofessional education curriculum. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 33(5), 573-575.
Kinio, A.E., Dufresne, L., Brandys, T. and Jetty, P. (2019) Break out of the classroom: The use of escape rooms as an alternative teaching strategy in surgical education. Journal of Surgical Education, 76(1), 134-139.
| Key words | Co-design, active learning, educational games, engagement |
|---|---|
| Region | UK/Ireland |
