Abstract
Optometrists play a vital role in the prevention and management of many eye diseases. The expansion of optometrists’ prescribing and overall medical privileges has placed a burden on the optometric curriculum, limiting hours in professional topics courses such as practice management and public health. While the overall objectives may differ, the pedagogical challenges would be similar in public health training programs. That is, reduced hours and limited contact with students during the current COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic both place pedagogical demands on the optometric and public health educator alike to meet learning objectives and course outcomes using atypical methods. As the current evidence about problem- or scenario-based versus lecture-based outcomes is equivocal, we randomly assigned half the students in an epidemiology/public health course to a case-based learning (CBL) group using three instructors naïve to problem-based teaching. The other half of the students attended lectures covering the same topics. Performance gains—the differences between the pretest and posttest scores—were compared between the two learning groups. The mean performance gain for the CBL group ( M = 25.5%) was slightly higher than for the lecture-based learning group ( M = 23.6%), but the difference was not statistically significant, t(56) = 0.71, p = .48. Inferences are discussed in the context of the study’s design and limitations. Overall, we believe our results can be extended to public health and health professions programs needing creative methods to reach health promotion learning objectives with limited student contact.
Highlights
Optometrists play an important role in preventing occupational, recreational, environmental, and age-related eye diseases (Bressler et al, 2003; McCracken & Smith, 2017)
While teaching health promotion in a public health curriculum would have wider challenges such as incorporating social relations, mental health, and marketing aspects (Berkman, 1995; Soames Job, 1988), all public health educators are faced with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic
We proposed a modified case-based learning (CBL) approach—utilizing three instructors inexperienced with team-based learning (TBL) or problem-based learning—for half of the students enrolled in a required epidemiology/public health course and an lecture-based learning (LBL) approach for the other half of the class
Summary
Optometrists play an important role in preventing occupational, recreational, environmental, and age-related eye diseases (Bressler et al, 2003; McCracken & Smith, 2017). PBL achieves outcomes through active and collaborative learning activities and has been employed in undergraduate medical education for more than 50 years (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1976) It is increasingly used in health professional education (Spiers et al, 2014) and involves students more independently solving uncultivated problems rather than participating in instructor-led discussions or lectures (Barrows, 2000). We proposed a modified case-based learning (CBL) approach—utilizing three instructors inexperienced with TBL or problem-based learning—for half of the students enrolled in a required epidemiology/public health course and an LBL approach for the other half of the class. The purpose of this study was to compare pretest to posttest performance gains between the two learning groups
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