Effect of Delivery Format on Student Outcomes and Perceptions of a Veterinary Medicine Course: Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Learning

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted instruction at many veterinary schools to switch to an emergency remote teaching format to prevent viral transmission associated with in-person synchronous lectures. This study surveyed student perspectives and academic performance in a pre-planned online second-year veterinary toxicology course given at North Carolina State University in Spring 2020. This course relied on asynchronous narrated presentations for content delivery. This method of delivery predated the pandemic and was used throughout the course. Academic performance and patterns of access to materials in the online course was compared with the access patterns and performance of students given classroom-based synchronous teaching in Spring 2019. Assessments evaluated in this study were identical across courses. Students’ academic performance was unaffected by delivery method. Lack of instructor interaction was an important perceived barrier in the asynchronous course. Asynchronous course materials were uniformly accessed across all days of the week, while supplemental materials for the face-to-face course showed a weekly pattern. Moving from letter grades to pass/fail did not change access frequency to supplemental course materials but led to decreased video usage in the asynchronous course. Results suggest that although some veterinary students perceived the switch in delivery format negatively, the method of delivery did not adversely affect performance in this preclinical course.

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness Using Value-Added Models of High School Achievement

This article uses empirical data to consider the consequences of particular characteristics of instruction and testing in high school for the modeling and estimation of value-added measures of school or teacher effectiveness. Unlike Mathematics and Reading for most elementary and middle school grades, there is a lack of annual testing of students in all secondary grades and subjects. The development of value-added models in high school is complicated by the resulting unavailability of direct measures of prior knowledge and readiness of the student for the relevant course. Another distinction between high school and earlier grades is the presence of greater differentiated instruction in high school caused by supplemental course requirements or by student self-selection into different courses. We show that the traditional value-added model used in NCLB grades and subjects can be generalized to the high school context. Specifically, prior-year test scores in related or core subjects can be used to control for differences in student aptitude for the course or subject being evaluated. Similarly, we can account for relevant differences in classroom characteristics—such as the average prior achievement of the students in the classroom—if they are assumed to be beyond a teacher's control.

Podcasting In Higher Education: Does It Make A Difference?

Podcasting is a growing trend in higher education. Major software companies, such as Apple, have dedicated entire websites to podcasting. These podcasts are available to college students to be used as supplemental material for specific coursework at their particular college or university. Unfortunately, due to the new and progressive nature of the technology, empirical studies of the effectiveness of this pedagogical device are rare. This paper presents an empirical study of the effectiveness of podcasting when incorporated as supplemental course material in a university course.

Effects of an applied supplemental course on student performance in elementary physiology.

The objective of this study was to determine whether students within a large (100-160 students) didactic lecture-based course, "Elementary Physiology" (EP), who were given an active-learning opportunity would perform better on objective examinations over EP material compared with their classroom peers who did not have the same active-learning experience. This was achieved by offering the EP students the option of taking a supplemental one credit hour discussion-based course, "Case Studies in Physiology" (CSP). Approximately 14% of the EP students opted for the CSP course. The format of CSP consisted of a one-hour-per-week discussion of applied problems based on the factual information presented in EP. On a subjective scale of 1 to 4, the CSP students felt that the course helped them to understand the EP material (3.5). This was reflected in the EP examination results for which the CSP students scored significantly higher compared with their non-CSP peers (81.1% vs. 75.7%; P < 0.05). These results indicate that when active-learning methods, such as discussion of applied problems, are used as a supplement to didactic lectures in physiology, performance on objective examinations of lecture material is improved.