Effectiveness of interactive, online games in learning neuroscience and students' perception of the games as learning tools. A pre-experimental study

Neurological concepts applicable to a doctorate in occupational therapy are often challenging to comprehend, and students are required to demonstrate critical reasoning skills beyond simply recalling the information. To achieve this, various learning and teaching strategies are used, including the use of technology in the classroom. The availability of technology in academic settings has allowed for diverse and active teaching approaches. This includes videos, web-based instruction, and interactive online games. In this quantitative pre-experimental analysis, the learning and retention of neuroscience concepts by 30 occupational therapy doctoral students, who participated in an interactive online learning experience, were assessed. The results suggest that student use of these tools may enhance their learning of neuroscience. Furthermore, the students felt that the sites were appropriate, beneficial to them, and easy to use. Thus, the use of online, interactive neuroscience games may be effective in reinforcing lecture materials. This needs to be further assessed in a larger sample size.     

The Partnering Model: Occupational Therapy Assistant and Occupational Therapy Students Working Together

SUMMARY

Establishing a partnering relationship between the occupational therapy assistant (OTA) and the occupational therapist (OT) is imperative in order to create an optimal working environment and deliver effective client care. A developmental model that provides students with opportunities to practice such a relationship has been used by an OTA and OT program in southwestern Ohio. This developmental Partnering Model gives students an opportunity to interact, work as teams, and collaborate during their educational experience. Each aspect of the model provides students with experiential learning opportunities. Educators will serve their OTA and OT students well in providing opportunities for them to develop and practice the skills they will need to create an optimal working environment and deliver effective client care as occupational therapy practitioners.     

Clinical Reasoning and Reflective Practice: Implications of Fieldwork Activities

Objectives. Theories and research suggest that learning clinical reasoning skills requires students to be reflective in their practice. To explain this proposition, five research questions were developed to examine the effect of: (a) the fieldwork experience on clinical reasoning skills, (b) degree of participation in different clinical reasoning activities on clinical reasoning skills, and (c) the total number of clinical reasoning activities in which students participated related to clinical reasoning.

Method. Data (n = 70) were collected using a researcher-developed case analysis test, the Adaptive Style Inventory, and a questionnaire. Paired t tests, ANCOVA, and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data from the research questions.

Results. Fieldwork does improve clinical reasoning skills (large effect size). Participation in activities thought to develop clinical reasoning skills was mixed.

Conclusion. The results support the improvement of fieldwork as a mode of developing clinical reasoning skills in occupational therapy students.     

The Perspectives of Fieldwork Educators Regarding Level II Fieldwork Students

ABSTRACT

Ten occupational therapists employed in pediatric and adult rehabilitation settings participated in focus groups to discuss their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks in working with occupational therapy students. Participants identified professional values, opportunities for continued professional development, recruitment of future employees, and pride in learning experiences available as incentives for working with students. Fieldwork educators who had supervised students lacking foundational communication, problem-solving, and clinical skills were cautious about accepting future Level II students. Time constraints and lack of preparation for the educator role were perceived as barriers to working with students. Fieldwork educators expected the academic institution to provide efficient support, including training for the educator role, information regarding the expectations of the academic program, and ongoing communication over the fieldwork experience. Strategies for strengthening the ties between academic programs and fieldwork sites were explored.     

Concept Mapping: An Effective Instructional Strategy for Diet Therapy

Concept mapping is an instructional strategy that requires learners to identify, graphically display, and link key concepts in instructional reading material. Although proven effective in numerous disciplines as a means to promote critical thinking and self-directed learning, concept mapping has not been tested in diet therapy. The objective of this study was to implement concept mapping as a small-group, cooperative learning strategy in an upper-division diet therapy course and to evaluate student attitudes about the effect of concept mapping on knowledge, self-directed learning, problem-solving, and collaborative skills. Students in the first semester (n=27) initially learned course material by lecture (4 weeks) followed by an integrated mapping/lecture format (12 weeks); the second semester (n=25) used an integrated mapping lecture format for the full 16 weeks. At the end of both semesters, students completed a 10-item original survey questionnaire. Responses for first (n=25) and second (n=21) semesters were analyzed independently. Results indicated that a majority of students thought participation in concept mapping enhanced knowledge of diet therapy principles (n=19 of 25; 18 of 21), self-directed learning (n=14 of 25; 18 of 21), critical thinking (n=21 of 25; 14 of 21), problem-solving (n=22 of 25; 16 of 21), and collaboration (n=24 of 25; 20 of 21) skills. When noncooperation of teammates was a factor, concept mapping was viewed as more frustrating and time consuming than lecture. This study demonstrated concept mapping as an effective learning strategy for diet therapy; it improves students’ ability to engage in self-directed learning, critical thinking, collaboration, and creative problem solving. Results suggest that concept mapping is most effective when accompanied with comprehensive training, coordinated lectures, instructor guidance, and long-term practice. J Am Diet Assoc. 1995; 95:908–911.     

Brief or New: The Benefits of On-Line Learning in Occupational Therapy

SUMMARY

This paper discusses the benefits of incorporating an on-line program, such as Blackboard, into occupational therapy education to enhance the learning experience. An occupational therapy department at a midwestern university piloted the use of Blackboard in two classes in the spring semester of the junior year. Students (n = 16) ranging in age from 20–28 years participated in the pilot study, which lasted a period of 12 weeks. The students were given various assignments on Blackboard involving discussions, answering questions related to the lecture topic, and sharing evidence-based practice. Overall, the student perceptions of incorporating Blackboard into a traditional classroom were positive. Eighty-one percent of the students felt that Blackboard was easy to access, 75% felt that they could share thoughts and stories that they would not necessarily have shared in a classroom setting, and 81% felt that Blackboard expanded on lecture topics and relevant practice information. Data suggest that on-line learning can enhance the educational experience by building upon student fieldwork experiences, evidence-based practice, discussion of key concepts in the profession, and clinical reasoning.     

Using Service-Learning to Teach Mental Health and Research Skills

ABSTRACT

This paper describes how an occupational therapy program used service-learning to integrate the learning objectives for mental health and research curriculum content. The service-learning program assisted participants diagnosed with mental illness to achieve success in higher education and/or related goals and served as a clinical program within a research curriculum for entry-level graduate occupational therapy students. The occupational therapy students served as mentors for the participants. The purpose of the program for the occupational therapy students was to teach research skills, clinical skills, and increase comfort in working with the mental health population. Seventy-eight occupational therapy students participated in the program over four academic years. A case example of a student/participant mentoring relationship is provided. Results indicated that the occupational therapy students gained comfort with the population and competence in their clinical and research skills.     

Group Co-Leadership by Occupational Therapy Students in Community Centers: Learning Transitional Roles

SUMMARY

The experience of contact with community populations and settings at the beginning of fieldwork is essential in expanding the dimensions of non-traditional skills and roles for occupational therapy students. This article describes an initial fieldwork experience which builds on an occupational therapy group process course to enable students to supplement a community-based program with activities designed to meet a need of their group at the appropriate level of group interaction. Pairs of students select a receptive community site prior to the beginning of fieldwork to open dialog with the center's coordinator regarding performance areas, components, or contexts needed by the group. Working to assess the current programmatic offerings and desires of the participants for new activities and planning activities in collaboration with local staff, the students propose to conduct a series of five sessions addressing a theme desired or needed by the group. Upon immersion in the site's program, students are able to provide an in-depth assessment of the community group's psychosocial skill needs using the Group Level of Function Profile (Donohue, 2000).     

Occupational therapy students’ perceptions of occupational therapy

Background/aims: An understanding of students’ perceptions of occupational therapy on entry is required to recognise how professional socialisation occurs through curriculum. Findings pertain to a qualitative study investigating students’ perceptions of occupational therapy upon entry to two occupational therapy programmes in Australia. Methods: Students commencing Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and Masters of Occupational Therapy Studies programmes participated in the study (n = 462). A purpose‐designed questionnaire was distributed to students in the first lecture of each programme. Preliminary analysis comprised identification of keywords/phrases and coding categories were generated from patterns of keywords. Frequency counts and percentages of keywords/phrases within categories were completed. Results: Students’ responses were categorised as ‘what’ occupational therapists do; ‘how’ they do it; ‘why’ they do it; and ‘who’ they work with. In ‘what’ occupational therapists do students frequently described ‘helping’ people. Both undergraduate and graduate entry masters students used the term ‘rehabilitation’ to describe how occupational therapy is done, with graduate entry students occasionally responding with ‘through occupation’ and ‘modifying the environment’. Students perceived the ‘why’ of occupational therapy as getting back to ‘everyday activities’, with some students emphasising returning to ‘normal’ activities or life. Regarding the ‘who’ category, students also thought occupational therapists worked with people with an ‘injury’ or ‘disability’. Conclusions: Students entered their occupational therapy programmes with perceptions consistent with the general public’s views of occupational therapy. However, graduate entry students exposed to a pre‐reading package prior to entry had more advanced occupational therapy concepts than undergraduate students.     

Helping Hands for Healthy Living: A Collaborative Service Learning Project with Occupational and Physical Therapy Students

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a unique interdisciplinary service-learning course and to evaluate the impact of this experience on allied health students' professional development. One hundred and twenty-seven students from occupational and physical therapy programs served medically uninsured individuals (n = 170) at a community health clinic through provision of direct patient care services, depression screens, and a health promotion program. Surveys and personal reflections were used to measure the outcome of the course. The results indicated that student cognitive skills, ability to work with diverse populations, social responsibility, beliefs and opinions about service learning, and appreciation of each other's discipline were enhanced by their participation in the class.     

Occupational Therapy Students' Learning Styles and Application to Professional Academic Training

SUMMARY

Methods of optimizing students' learning have been a major concern of educators over time. If occupational therapy educators know the students' learning styles at the onset of their training, teaching can be designed to enhance students' optimal learning throughout their education. This study determined learning styles of 201 junior students (age range = 18–57, mean age = 30.9), enrolled in an urban occupational therapy program from 1990 to 1999. Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, a 12-item questionnaire, was administered to the students in the spring of their junior years. Their learning styles were determined using Kolb's criteria. Results yielded: variations in students' preferred learning styles in each class from year to year; higher percentage of convergers (mean = 35%), fewer divergers (mean = 18%). Overall, students were mostly convergers (mean = 35%) and assimilators (mean = 25%). Applications of the findings to teaching students are discussed.     

Does PBL Matter? Relations Between Instructional Context,Learning Strategies,and Learning Outcomes

Purpose:To compare learning strategies used in Problem based learning (PBL) and lectures, and the relations between learning strategies and learning outcomes to determine how different learning strategies associated with PBL and lectures contribute to aspects of clinical competence. Design:The 52-item learning strategies questionnaire was given to preclinical medical students during lecture and PBL sessions in first and third year from 1994 to1998. Response patterns were compared across the two contexts and factor structures investigated. Regression analyses examined relations between learning strategies and outcomes.Main Outcome Measures/Results:Comparison of responses on the 326 complete pairs of lecture and PBL questionnaires indicated differences at the 0.05 level on 44 of the 52 items. The mean differences were greater than 0.5 (on a 5 point scale)at the 0.001 level for 20 items. Of these, five strategies were used more often in PBL and 15 in lectures. Comparisons of learning strategy use across years showed significant changes with time in both instructional contexts. Principal component analysis revealed a stable factor structure with 4 factors distinctly associated with PBL and 4 factors with the lecture learning context. The remaining 6 factors were mixed and independent of context. Exploratory regression analysis revealed that learning outcomes in examinations were influenced by learning strategies. Multiple choice performance was positively predicted by learning associated with lecture class notes and negatively by group work, whereas the OSCE (objective structured clinical exam) performance was positively predicted by class participation in PBL, self-directed note making and lecture class notes.Conclusion:We have developed a learning strategies questionnaire that shows that students' learning strategies are influenced by instructional context, and patterns of learning strategy use change over time. There is tentative evidence that the students' learning strategies influence learning outcomes. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Computer-Assisted Instruction Improves Clinical Reasoning Skills of Dietetics Students

Objective The effects of a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) tutorial program on learning clinical reasoning skills were compared in undergraduate dietetics students.Design A drill-and-practice program to control for time on task, a tutorial program, and a simulation program, as the test vehicle, were developed. The tutorial and simulation programs presented data on a patient with cardiovascular disease.Setting Subjects were tested in 30 undergraduate dietetics programs.Subjects Participants were 413 undergraduate diet therapy students enrolled in a coordinated program in dietetics (CPD) or a didactic program in dietetics (DPD).Intervention After completion of lectures on cardiovascular disease, subjects were given the drill-and-practice program plus a simulation test (group 1), the tutorial plus a simulation test (group 2), or the simulation test only (group 3).Main outcome measures Scores on the simulation test were compared. Variables included type of CAI, dietetics program, year in school, computer experience, and experience using a medical chart. Mastery of objectives related to lower- and higher-level clinical reasoning skills introduced in the tutorial program was compared.Statistical analysis One-way analysis of variance and Student-Newman Keuls tests were conducted to determine any differences among the three groups. Reliability was determined using the Kuder-Richardson Formula 20.Results The reliability coefficient of the simulation test was 0.93. Group 2 scored higher on the simulation test than group 1 or group 3. As a group, the CPD students scored higher than the DPD students. When CPD and DPD students were divided into the three experimental groups, there was no significant difference between the CPD and DPD student simulation scores. Group 2 mastered all objectives for lower-level reasoning skills and the higher-level decision-making objective better than groups 1 and 3.Applications/conclusions A computer tutorial program enhanced clinical reasoning skills in undergraduate dietetics students. This type of program could be used to supplement many topics taught in diet therapy and provide DPD students with experiential learning before their clinical intern practicums. J Am Diet Assoc. 1995; 95:868–873.     

Service Learning: The Process of Doing and Becoming an Occupational Therapist

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of entry-level occupational therapy students participating in a service-learning experience designed to provide preventive occupation-based social skills groups to low-income urban youth attending after-school care. Reflective journals and focus groups were used to study how the students made sense of their experience. Qualitative data analysis resulted in six major themes revealing the process of professional growth over the eight-weeks. Professional reasoning progressed from mechanical procedural reasoning to flexible forms of conditioning reasoning. Findings emphasize the critical role of active participation in real-life contexts on learning how to become an occupational therapist. Study findings provide a discussion about the possibilities of preparing future occupational therapy practitioners to address society's occupational needs in emerging practice areas.     

A randomized, controlled, single-blind trial of teaching provided by a computer-based multimedia package versus lecture

BACKGROUND: Computer-based teaching may allow effective teaching of important psychiatric knowledge and skills. AIMS: To investigate the effectiveness and acceptability of computer-based teaching. METHOD: A single-blind, randomized, controlled study of 166 undergraduate medical students at the University of Leeds, involving an educational intervention of either a structured lecture or a computer-based teaching package (both of equal duration). RESULTS: There was no difference in knowledge between the groups at baseline or immediately after teaching. Both groups made significant gains in knowledge after teaching. Students who attended the lecture rated their subjective knowledge and skills at a statistically significantly higher level than students who had used the computers. Students who had used the computer package scored higher on an objective measure of assessment skills. Students did not perceive the computer package to be as useful as the traditional lecture format, despite finding it easy to use and recommending its use to other students. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students rate themselves subjectively as learning less from computer-based as compared with lecture-based teaching. Objective measures suggest equivalence in knowledge acquisition and significantly greater skills acquisition for computer-based teaching.     

Building Student Community in a Hybrid Program

ABSTRACT

The concept of student community has been shown to enhance learning, empower students, and increase engagement in the learning process. An occupational therapy program transformed classroom-based learning to a hybrid platform with over 70% of the course content online and expanded from one to two learning sites. Based on faculty concerns about occupational therapy students’ experience of belonging to a community, this study compared student-perceived sense of community in the first and final didactic semesters of a hybrid Master's program. Using the Classroom and School Community Inventory and a Checklist of 24 Points of Contact, faculty found over 90% of students reported a sense of community with no significant differences from start to finish of the didactic program, or between learning sites. Furthermore, students reported informal, out-of-classroom interactions with colleagues, group assignments, and face-to-face classroom sessions as the strongest points of contact contributing to a sense of student community.     

Personality Characteristics of Australian Occupational Therapy Students

The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule was administered to 98 occupational therapy students in four different years of training, and to seven staff members who filled in the Schedule “as if they were the ideal occupational therapist”. Derived scores were then compared with previously published work and also with those that defined the ideal occupational therapist. Significant differences between groups were found on 11 of the 15 personality traits. Findings revealed that not only do occupational therapy students differ from other tertiary groups, but on some traits, notably achievement, order, dominance and abasement, such differences relate to the year of training. These latter data suggest that as training proceeds some personality traits change in the direction of those which characterise the ideal occupational therapist.