Enhanced podcasts for teaching biochemistry to veterinary students

Abstract

The teaching of biochemistry within medical disciplines presents certain challenges; firstly to relay a large body of complex facts and abstract concepts, and secondly to motivate students that this relatively difficult topic is worth their time to study. Here, nutrient biochemistry was taught within a multidisciplinary module as part of an undergraduate veterinary curriculum. The teaching approach was initially focussed on a mixture of didactic lectures and student-centred activities such as directed group/self learning. In subsequent years the core didactic lectures were replaced with enhanced podcasts covering the same material, along with the introduction of student presentations delivered within groups with both peer and facilitator assessment. These changes were accompanied by an increase in the time dedicated to this topic to allow sufficient time for students to work through podcasts and prepare presentations. The combination of these changes resulted in significant improvements in student performance within an in-course biochemistry long essay. These changes in the teaching approach, and particularly the introduction of extensive podcasts, was well received by students who perceived the process of going through the podcasts as time consuming but allowing them flexibility in both the pace that they studied this topic as well as the location and times that they studied it.