Faculty Funded Project - Education

Project Title

Can the use of wireless keypads facilitate interaction amongst health science students in interprofessional education contexts?

Overview

The need for this proposal is based on the empirical results reported in multiple journal articles that students enrolled in health science university programs are increasingly diverse in background, ethnicity, ability and experience.   It is therefore critical that we as health science educators develop innovative and strategic approaches to teaching these students in a shifting environment.  One shift is towards the increasing use of technology within classroom contexts.  Wireless keypads are an electronic teaching and learning tool that creates an interactive learning environment.  The system uses infrared student transmitters, an infrared receiver which collects the responses made by the students and software capable of embedding into PowerPoint slides.  This system has been commonly linked with the technique of ‘asking the audience’ on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? 

The literature on the use of wireless keypads suggests that several areas of improvement to teaching and learning practices do occur including:

• Providing reflective reactive and anonymous student feedback;
• Providing an indication of students’ knowledge gaps;
• Reinforcing and linking concepts, theories and factual information;

The project has the potential to impact on the way general face-to-face teaching occurs at Monash University.  It is confidently expected that positive teaching and learning outcomes will be achieved during classroom lectures using a wireless keypad in interprofessional education contexts – the ultimate expectation is that student interaction is increased during classroom lectures which in turn enhances student-centred learning.

This project is designed to test the hypothesis that the use of wireless keypads can increase student interactions in classroom settings in interprofessional education contexts involving students from Health Science/Social Work, Paramedics, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy.  It is anticipated that it will lead to improved and increased frequency of health science student interactions.  In turn, this will increase the quality of teaching Monash University and strengthen the ability of students to self-reflect, receive critical feedback and interact with student peers from other professional groups.

The project will use a simple descriptive design using a validated Likert-based questionnaire and focus group discussion.  A convenience sample of undergraduate students will be selected from the health science professions of Paramedics, Health Science/Social Work, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy.  The aim of this study will be to measure student perceptions and attitudes of wireless technologies used in their interprofessional teaching and learning and if student interactions are improved using wireless keypads.

Project Steering Committee

• Mr Brett Williams
• Dr Belinda Lewis
• Dr Ted Brown
• Dr Rebecca Scholes
• Mr Mal Boyle
• A/Prof Tangerine Holt
• Dr George Kotsanas
• Dr Jenny Sim

Project Contact

brett.williams@med.monash.edu.au