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.