We report on MobiDics, a mobile learning platform for professors, lecturers and tutors. In a survey with 100+ participants, we revealed that young, inexperienced teaching personnel at universities rarely use specific didactic methods to plan and structure courses. Such methods play an important role in learning processes since they, for example, activate students and contribute to more profound...

OBJECTIVE This study's objective was to determine whether attendance at lectures in a block conference format improves residents' knowledge. METHODS Seventeen family medicine residents were tested on the content of 27 lectures delivered in a block conference format over a 6-month period. For each lecture, residents completed a pretest, a short-term posttest, and a long-term posttest (1--3 wee...

This project used the approach of "human situations" to teach about the cardiovascular system within an undergraduate physiology course (PGY 412). About two-thirds of the students had previously taken a college-level physiology course (sophisticated), whereas one-third had not (naive). Nine didactic lectures were organized around the common human situations of orthostasis, blood donation, and e...

Methods were needed to improve the interest of medical students in the 10-lecture Endocrine Physiology block at the end of the second semester of study. Other incentives for improvement included the possibility of attracting students into endocrine research electives and the pressure to improve teaching approaches that results from the high tuition they pay. The principal approach adopted was t...

Research underscores the importance of retrieval-based practice and application of knowledge for meaningful learning. However, the didactic lecture format continues to persist in traditional university physiology courses. A strategy called whiteboarding, where students use handheld dry erase boards and work in small groups to actively retrieve, discuss, and apply concepts presented in the lectu...

The technological evolution, especially the World Wide Web provides new options to disseminate educational material. The usual collection of separate computer based courses is replaced by a comprehensive information space holding interrelated lecture material as well as other study related information. This paper discusses our experience in setting up such an information space and using it for ...

CRITICAL FUSION FREQUENCY (CFF), or the flicker fusion threshold, is defined as the critical frequency above which a flickering light source appears steady to the observer (see Fig. 1). It is known to depend on a number of parameters, namely, intensity of the light source (5, 15), wavelength (color) of the light, retinal locus (11), binocular or monocular vision (9, 14), light-dark ratio of the...

Inouye CY, Bae CL, Hayes KN. Using whiteboards to support college students’ learning of complex physiological concepts. Adv Physiol Educ 41: 478–484, 2017; doi:10.1152/advan.00202.2016.— Research underscores the importance of retrieval-based practice and application of knowledge for meaningful learning. However, the didactic lecture format continues to persist in traditional university physiolo...

This study compared student perceptions and learning outcomes of computer-assisted instruction against those of traditional didactic lectures. Components of Quantitative Circulatory Physiology (Biological Simulators) and Mechanical Properties of Active Muscle (Trinity Software) were used to teach regulation of tissue blood flow and muscle mechanics, respectively, in the course Medical Physiolog...