Last year we caught up with Professor Hui Chen, Dr David van Reyk and Professor Brian Oliver about the range of strategies the team was using to enhance the learning experience in the Faculty of Science’s Medical Science and Advanced Science programs, with this blog post: My decision, their ‘lives’: supporting deeper learning in medical science. The team’s efforts are now being recognised with a prestigious AAUT citation. We checked in once again with Hui, David and Brian to talk about the citation and the work leading up to it.
Congratulations on receiving the AAUT citation. Could you tell us a little about the work you are being recognised for?
This is the culmination of work led by Hui where the common theme has been to better contextualise case studies about individuals, each with a particular disease, for a cohort of science students who don’t have the benefit of going on practicums like the students in health professional degrees. For the latter engagement with actual patients is a means for experiential learning that the science students miss out on. This is a challenge since the science students are studying Hui’s subject as part of the degree created with a graduate career in the health and medical sector in mind.
You’ve experimented with various teaching methods, including simulations and videos. How have your students responded to these different approaches?
Positively based on cycles of evaluation that we have undertaken. Though that is “positive” but with some reservations when it came to the first round of students who went in cold into the simulation laboratories. From the evaluations we established that the veracity of the simulation left some students daunted at the prospect of interacting with the simulations. Also, they had no prior lower-risk opportunities to work up some clinical communication skills. We used this to refine the classes creating pre-work modules to get the students better prepared for their encounter
Were there any particular challenges you encountered during subject design and delivery?
Sustainability is a big challenge. Changing availability of resources and modes of delivery has actually been the driver for subsequent pivots and redevelopments. With the most recent innovations, which involved gamification, the issue was that we needed outside commercial expertise and we haven’t been able to keep that going.
What were the biggest lessons you learned as your teaching practice evolved?
Cycles of design, implementation, evaluation and redesign are essential in learning design.
The intention of all these innovations is to let students have some fun in their learning. Then, we also had great fun during the brainstorming, creating the materials, and even acting in those videos, which spanned over 10 years. What do people always say? “The most beautiful scenery is on the way”.
Hui Chen