TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving Undergraduate Epidemiology Education
T2 - An Example Using Instructional Teams
AU - Brown, Heidi E.
AU - Cox, Jonathan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - Epidemiology is a core component of the undergraduate public health curriculum and a critical component of a healthy community and a comprehensive education. Evidence-based, collaborative instructional practices improve student success, reach diverse student populations, and improve learning outcomes. Here we describe the pedagogical approach of an instructional team with which we observed an 18% greater learning gain (95% confidence interval: 6.5, 29.5; t =-3.08; P = 0.002), based on pre-/posttesting in a large (approximately 120 students) undergraduate course, than with the prior course offering. There were no differences in DEW rates (defined as receiving a grade of D (scoring 60%-69%) or E (scoring <60%) or withdrawing (W)) between the 2 offerings, but the ratio of "A"to "B"grades was higher (by approximately 10%) after deployment of the instructional team (Pearson's χ2 (1 degree of freedom) = 4.17, P = 0.041). In addition, students reported greater satisfaction with the course deploying an instructional team (80.4% positive sentiment in course evaluation comments compared with 76.1% in the prior offering). As students and faculty become more familiar with effective evidence-based instructional practices, improvements in student learning can be achieved and the goal of creating an educated citizenry ready to build a healthy society will be more attainable.
AB - Epidemiology is a core component of the undergraduate public health curriculum and a critical component of a healthy community and a comprehensive education. Evidence-based, collaborative instructional practices improve student success, reach diverse student populations, and improve learning outcomes. Here we describe the pedagogical approach of an instructional team with which we observed an 18% greater learning gain (95% confidence interval: 6.5, 29.5; t =-3.08; P = 0.002), based on pre-/posttesting in a large (approximately 120 students) undergraduate course, than with the prior course offering. There were no differences in DEW rates (defined as receiving a grade of D (scoring 60%-69%) or E (scoring <60%) or withdrawing (W)) between the 2 offerings, but the ratio of "A"to "B"grades was higher (by approximately 10%) after deployment of the instructional team (Pearson's χ2 (1 degree of freedom) = 4.17, P = 0.041). In addition, students reported greater satisfaction with the course deploying an instructional team (80.4% positive sentiment in course evaluation comments compared with 76.1% in the prior offering). As students and faculty become more familiar with effective evidence-based instructional practices, improvements in student learning can be achieved and the goal of creating an educated citizenry ready to build a healthy society will be more attainable.
KW - education
KW - epidemiology
KW - evidence-based instructional practices
KW - instructional teams
KW - teaching
KW - undergraduate education
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U2 - 10.1093/aje/kwaa181
DO - 10.1093/aje/kwaa181
M3 - Article
C2 - 32808983
AN - SCOPUS:85102153276
SN - 0002-9262
VL - 190
SP - 305
EP - 312
JO - American journal of epidemiology
JF - American journal of epidemiology
IS - 2
ER -