Current projects
Teaching and Learning with Lecture Capture
In 2011, Kings College began recording most first- and second-year medical lectures, so that students can recap this information at any time. Initial student feedback has shown that they highly value this resource, and the College Teaching Fund awarded a grant for research into how students are using the recordings to support their learning and revision.
The project is being conducted by Leonie Sloman over the 2012-13 academic year, and will provide a rich description of how students use lecture recordings, combining data analytics on recording accesses with students’ own descriptions of why and how they use them. Students’ accounts of the advantages and drawbacks of using recordings will be used to offer future students guidance on how to get the most out of both live and recorded lectures, so that this new resource is used to improve their learning and enhance their educational experience at Kings.
The study is also looking at what issues lecture capture raises from a teaching perspective, in terms of preparing and delivering lectures. The findings will be used to provide guidance for Kings’ medical educators – whether deciding if they wish their lectures to be recorded, or considering more innovative ways to use lecture capture to support their teaching.
Domain based feedback
In the past, students received feedback on performance on clinical examination based on raw marks obtained – as such, students focused on the marks and how to improve them, rather than on the gaps in the skill base. For example, if a student scored 45% in a station, he/she will try to achieve that 5% by trying a little harder but with no indication of how to achieve it. However, each examination station tests a variety of skills, in an integrated scenario.
The current project analysed each item in a station according to the domain it tests:
-
History- taking
-
Clinical examination
-
Practical skills
-
Communication skills
-
Clinical reasoning; Clinical Management
Students are given grades and rankings for each domain according to the raw percentage of marks scored in each domain. For example, if a student scored 95% of all available Clinical examination marks, he/she will have scored an “A” grade.
The feedback is purely formative as it has no bearing on progression. Students can then review feedback with their tutors, and hopefully target their future learning.