Research Design for the Assessment of an In‐class, Student‐driven Teaching Activity

Abstract

The integration of in‐class teaching activities to enhance student learning can be a long, thought filled process involving many stages; initial activity design, pilot tests, subsequent refinements, and full assessment. This progression has been ongoing over the past two years in the evidence‐based design and integration of Movement Guided Learning© (MGL), an in‐class student‐driven activity workbook that guides students through applications of musculoskeletal anatomy including physical movements/stretches, surface palpations/visualizations, and extensions of knowledge with scenarios/case studies. Results from two pilots of MGL, one at the community college level (n=29) and one at the undergraduate university level (n=20), indicated that students not only learned musculoskeletal anatomy (improvement: 11.5% to 29.2% (t(24)=‐6.5, p <0.005), they also enjoyed MGL with 96% of students endorsing future use. Expanding off of the pilot success, the proposed research is designed as a prospective, observer‐blind, randomized crossover, superiority comparison of the MGL workbook against a traditional Q&A tutorial session with two research objectives: (1) to quantify the effectiveness of MGL as a pedagogical modality for teaching musculoskeletal anatomy (using pre‐ to post‐ knowledge tests) and (2) to fully assess the student‐perceived usefulness of MGL using the collective domains of clarity, applicability, and helpfulness (using a mixed‐methods questionnaire). The cohort is undergraduate students in Kinesiology and Athletic Therapy. Currently with the design stage, the detailed research methodology and assessment strategies will be presented.