Audience Response System Facilitates Prediction of Scores on In-Training Examination

Audience Response System (ARS) Use in the SCORE (Surgical Council on Resident Education) Surgery Training Curriculum: A Mixed Methodology Study

Background Audience Response Systems (ARS) could help overcome the limitations of traditional lectures by providing interactivity, engagement, and assessment. The perception of ARS use in surgical education is not well documented. Objective Examine the use of an ARS in teaching This Week In SCORE (Surgical Council on Resident Education)sessions to general surgery residents and medical students. Methods  ARS was used at weekly SCORE question sessions in a new general surgery residency program by four residents, 97 medical students, and 20 faculty. The study employed a mixed quantitative and qualitative method: two separate 10-question surveys for faculty and trainees (49% response rate) and a focus group discussion that included one faculty member, two residents, and two students. Results In 85 (85%) responses, the faculty favored the use of ARS in SCORE. Among the total of 510 responses from 51 residents and students, 57% agreed with the favorable use of ARS, while 28% were neutral and, in 14% of cases, negative. A greater proportion of faculty and learners preferred ARS over traditional lectures. The focus group content analysis showed a positive effect and preference from learners and faculty. Engagement, thinking stimulation, and group participation were the most common positive comments. No significant negative influence on ARS use was reported. Conclusions The use of an ARS in This Week In SCORE ​​​sessions were preferred by most of the faculty and a majority of learners. The benefits are ease of use and stimulation of discussion. ARS has the potential for more widespread utilization in additional educational settings.

Poll Everywhere to Encourage Learner Satisfaction and Participation in Internal Medicine Fellowship Didactics

Active learning improves self-reported engagement and satisfaction in medical education. Audience response systems are one mechanism of encouraging participation, especially in a setting in which learners in varying educational levels are present. Three fellowships participated in this educational quality improvement project where Poll Everywhere® was incorporated into didactics. Attendees were invited to complete a 4-question retrospective pre-post satisfaction survey. Incorporation of the Poll Everywhere® audience response system resulted in a shift in more favorable satisfaction scores and self-perceived attentiveness compared to the pre-intervention responses.

Utilizing Audience Response to Foster Evidence-based Learning in a Pilot Study: Does It Really Work?

Introduction

Radiology residency programs are increasingly using audience response systems (ARS) in educational lectures. It is imperative that this is investigated to assess if learning outcomes in trainees are actually improved.

Methods

The primary objective of this randomized prospective unblinded pilot study was to assess the effect of ARS on long-term learning outcomes, with a secondary objective of understanding perceptions of ARS amongst radiology residents. Twenty-two radiology residents were randomized into two groups of 11 residents each receiving five identical musculoskeletal (MSK) radiology lectures. One group received lectures through ARS and the other through traditional didactics. A pretest and identical posttest were completed by all residents at baseline and eight months later, respectively. Residents also completed a pre and post five-question Likert scale survey designed to measure perceptions of ARS.

Results

Wilcoxon rank sum tests revealed no statistically significant difference between the two groups of residents on the pretest (p = 0.47) or the posttest (p = 0.41). Of the five questions designed to gauge perceptions of ARS, “How often do you study radiology outside of work?” resulted in statistical significance between groups after the lecture series via ordinal logistic regression, with the ARS group six times more likely to study compared to the non-ARS group (Odds ratio = 6.52, P = 0.04, 95% Confidence Interval [1.1, 38.2]). There was no statistical difference in response to this question prior to the lecture series.

Discussion

Use of ARS was associated with increased likelihood of studying radiology without significant difference in long-term learning outcomes.