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| LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 30
| Issue : 2 | Page : 185 |
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Incorporating single best answer questions into revision lectures results in increased student satisfaction with lecture-based teaching
Sophie Fitzsimmons, Aliya Bryce, Sean Main
Department of Digestive Diseases, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Brighton, England, UK
| Date of Web Publication | 19-Sep-2017 |
Correspondence Address:
Sophie Fitzsimmons
Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, VU University Medical Center, De Boelelaan 1108, P.O. Box 7057, 1007 MB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/efh.EfH_273_16
How to cite this article:
Fitzsimmons S, Bryce A, Main S. Incorporating single best answer questions into revision lectures results in increased student satisfaction with lecture-based teaching. Educ Health 2017;30:185 |
How to cite this URL:
Fitzsimmons S, Bryce A, Main S. Incorporating single best answer questions into revision lectures results in increased student satisfaction with lecture-based teaching. Educ Health [serial online] 2017 [cited 2020 Dec 5];30:185. Available from: https://www.educationforhealth.net/text.asp?2017/30/2/185/215094 |
Dear Editor,
We read with interest Jayakumar et al.'s recent article [1] regarding preferences in near-peer teaching methods by medical undergraduates. In this UK-based study, the authors mentioned that medical students reported negative perceptions of large-group near-peer teaching and attributed this in part to lower levels of interactivity and reduced feedback. We have found that these issues may be addressed by the integration of relevant single best answer (SBA) questions to enhance the learning experience in a large-group setting.
Within our UK-based medical school, we established a series of high-yield revision lectures (”Fast Finals”) for final year medical students. SBAs were integrated into lectures written and delivered by junior doctors (1–2 years' postgraduation) with the aim of covering core knowledge and promoting good examination technique. Immediately following the lecture series, attendees were invited to provide anonymous feedback through an online survey (consisting of ranked Likert scale choices and free text boxes). The course ran twice in 2 consecutive years (2015 and 2016).
Student satisfaction ratings were consistently high (100% of students in 2015 and 94% in 2016 found Fast Finals useful for their revision), and the most common reason given was the use of SBAs (42% of positive responses). We also found that an SBA-based model facilitated our tutors' teaching on examination technique as well as their ability to cover core examination knowledge.
This increased student satisfaction may reflect the fact that using SBAs as a teaching tool has the potential to increase interactivity (which improves engagement and knowledge delivery [2]) and can also stimulate self-regulatory learning and knowledge retention.[3] An SBA-based approach can also provide the students with instant performance feedback through their ability to identify the correct answer and highlight areas of improvement within the curriculum for each student.
To our knowledge, there have been no previous evaluations of student satisfaction with SBA-based revision lectures. We believe that further work into using SBAs to optimize the lecture setting for teaching and revision will improve student satisfaction, learning experience, and possibly knowledge retention in a near-peer large-group setting.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Jayakumar N, Srirathan D, Shah R, Jakubowska A, Clarke A, Annan D, et al. Which peer teaching methods do medical students prefer? Educ Health (Abingdon) 2016;29:142-7.  [ PUBMED] |
| 2. | Wolff M, Wagner MJ, Poznanski S, Schiller J, Santen S. Not another boring lecture: Engaging learners with active learning techniques. J Emerg Med 2015;48:85-93. |
| 3. | Johannessen M, Winston K. Increasing knowledge retention through self-regulation in medical students. FASEB J 2015;29 1 Suppl:687.10. |
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