Increasing Student Engagement in Immunology Using Active Learning

Increasing Student Engagement in Immunology Using Active Learning Brendan Mattingly, Undergraduate Biology Program Results Background undergraduate biology majors each spring. • The immune system is the focus of BIOL 503, with some of the major course topics including innate immunity, humoral immunity, and cellular immunity. • Course content is focused on covering the many cells, proteins, and pathways these systems use to protect us. • BIOL 503 is offered on KU Edwards campus, where the class meets for a three-hour A 4 Quiz Score (Pre & Post) • Immunology (BIOL 503) is a three-credit course enrolling approximately 50 advanced session once per week. • To assess the effect of a new in-class activity on student learning and engagement, I administered a pre-quiz and post-quiz before and after an optional, ungraded, inclass activity, where students could choose whether to participate (treatment group) or opt out (control group). • To evaluate student learning rather than memory alone, different questions were used on each assessment but were designed to target the same content and cognitive levels. Students were also asked to indicate their confidence for each answer, on a scale of 1 -4. • Post-quiz scores and post-confidence scores for control and treatment groups were compared using a two-sample t-test. Paired-sample t-tests were used to compare pre - and post-quiz scores and pre- and post-quiz confidence ratings. Lecture N=46 Pre-Quiz N=23 Optional Case Study N=23 No Case Study N=28 Figure 1. Schematic illustrating the course structure designed around the implementation of an optional in-class activity. All students took a pre-quiz after hearing a lecture on new material. Then, students were invited to participate in an optional in-class activity that further reviewed this material. All students took a post-quiz on the same material at the beginning of the next class. Confidence Score (Pre & Post) Implementation & Assessment * 3 2 1 0 Question 1 1 Question 2 2 • I designed a new in-class activity with the overarching goal of improving student performance and increasing student engagement with BIOL 503 material during class time by reducing content delivery lectures and focusing on hands-on learning. * * 4 Question 3 3 * * B Question 4 4 * Question 5 5 * 3 2 1 0 1 Question 1 2 Question 2 3 Question 3 4 Question 4 5 Question 5 Figure 2 A-B. Column graphs showing pre- and post-quiz (A) and pre- and post-confidence (B) scores for students who did (treatment group) and did not (control group) participate in an optional in-class activity. Scores are separated by question, each of which represented a different level of Bloom’s Taxonomy (1=Knowledge, 2=Comprehension, 3=Application, 4=Synthesis, 5=Evaluation). Error bars show standard deviation, and asterisks (*) indicate instances where post-test quiz and/or post-confidence scores were significantly different (higher or lower) than their associated pre-test quiz and/or pre-confidence scores for a particular quiz question. Key: Control Group Pre-Test Control Group Post-Test Treatment Group Pre-Test Treatment Group Post. Test Conclusions & Next Steps • Overall, post-quiz scores were significantly higher for the treatment group when compared to the control group for both quiz scores (two-sample t-test, p=0. 001) and confidence scores (two-sample t-test, p=0. 002). • Only the treatment group demonstrated higher post-quiz and post-confidence scores for Question 2 (Comprehension), suggesting that the in-class activity may target this Bloom’s level (paired t-test, p<0. 001). • While students who participated in the in-class activity did not show a significant change in Question 3 confidence score, students who opted out showed a significant decrease in score (paired t-test, p=0. 005). • Students in both treatment and control groups saw significant improvements on quiz scores and confidence scores for Question 4 (Synthesis) over time (paired t-test, p<0. 006), which may be because just giving students time to process information can improve performance on higher taxonomic levels. • Question 5 was the same on both the pre- and post-quiz, but students were not given the correct answer between attempts. In that way, it served as an internal control on the assessment and may help to explain Question 4 results. Post-Quiz This project was supported by CTE’s 2019 Best Practices Institute • Next, I plan to use final exam grades as additional measure of longer-term student retention of this material.