Not Just Us Lecturing at You: Evaluating Small Group Workshops at a National Surgical Conference

Academic conferences typically rely on traditional lectures, which limit learner engagement. A national surgical conference recently implemented a novel session format "Breakshops," which focused on small group instruction (SGI). We assessed participants' perceptions of these sessions, as well as instructional quality and interactivity.

Breakshops were implemented at the 2024 American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA) annual meeting. Each 45-minute concurrent workshop was intended for a few dozen participants and incorporated SGI rather than slide-based presentations. Sessions were proposed, designed, and facilitated by attendees. We performed a convergent parallel mixed-methods analysis. Semi-structured interviews of participants were recorded, transcribed, inductively coded, and thematically analyzed. Quantitative data were collected from surveys of participants assessing satisfaction and perceived value and Program Committee members assessing SGI feature use and learner interactivity.

Thirty-one (70.5%) of 44 Breakshops were assessed by the Program Committee. From sixteen interviews and corresponding quantitative results, three themes emerged. First, Breakshops were a unique and valued addition to conference programming, reflected in a mean satisfaction score of 8.1 of 10 and 96.3% of 895 ratings deeming "Valuable" or "Somewhat Valuable." Second, Breakshops enhanced active learning, with increased use of SGI features correlating with greater interaction (p = 0.01) and value (p = 0.04). Third, there were opportunities to refine Breakshop implementation at a programmatic level.

Small group workshops which emphasize interaction and active learning enhanced learner engagement and provided unique value at the 2024 APSA conference. Their broader adoption should be considered to improve conference learning experiences.