A student-led approach to reimagining physiology problem solving tutorials

Students often report that physiology is challenging due to the complex and conceptual nature of the subject matter. To increase student engagement and understanding, many educators have adopted active learning approaches. BI25B2 Physiology of Human Organ Systems is a compulsory year 2 medical sciences course taken by students on a 4 year BSc (Hons) programme. While the 5 problem solving tutorials are designed to help students apply their knowledge, we have noted that engagement in these sessions has been low since the pandemic.

In this student-led project, we redeveloped the cardiovascular physiology tutorial. This focussed on a clinical case study called Gardening Mishap in which a 65-year-old overweight sedentary man called George experiences a myocardial infarction. The session was delivered using Vevox, a live polling platform, and included a range of question types such as multiple choice and image labelling. Anonymous feedback was collected through surveys.

Feedback was very positive. Over 95% of respondents (n=152) reported that the tutorial was engaging and interactive. In the free-text comments, there were multiple positive mentions of the session being entertaining (n=17) and giving students the opportunity to apply their knowledge (n=30). Following the next problem solving tutorial which was delivered in the traditional format, students were surveyed again. Over 80% of respondents (n=47) preferred the format of the redeveloped tutorial and found it more interactive.

In conclusion, this student-led project was successful and we aim to redevelop the other problem solving tutorials in the future.