The audience response system may help short- and long-term knowledge gain in large classrooms

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Introduction: The audience response system (ARS) is widely used to increase active learning and expert knowledge gain from lectures. Several studies have shown its effectiveness in short-term knowledge gain, but few studies have reported on long-term knowledge gain. The present authors measured short- and long-term knowledge gain with ARS in a large class. Methods: This study was conducted during a clinical reasoning course for medical students over a 3-month period. Students completed the same questionnaire (40 multiple-choice questions) before (pretest) and after the course (posttest). The authors administered 20 ARS and 20 non-ARS questions in five different sessions during the course. Average pre- and posttest scores were compared to evaluate short- and long-term knowledge gain. Results: The average posttest score for ARS questions was 2.5 points higher than the average pretest score; a statistically significant difference. The average non-ARS posttest score was 0.2 points higher than the average pretest score, but was not statistically significant. The short- and long-term average posttest scores with ARS were higher than the average pretest scores, and were statistically significant. Conclusions: Overall knowledge gain during the course showed improvement when ARS was used.