"Gastrointestinal Circuit": an active learning approach to enhance understanding of human digestive system physiology

Physiology education often faces challenges such as limited instructional time, complex content, and low student engagement, leading to high failure rates. This study introduces the "Gastrointestinal Circuit," a low-cost, active learning activity using large visual materials and interactive tasks to enhance undergraduate teaching of gastrointestinal physiology. Seventy students from Nursing, Speech-Language Pathology, and Biological Sciences participated in a pretest-posttest design and opinion survey. Results showed significant learning gains (P ≤ 0.05), particularly in the areas of gastrointestinal hormones and the enteric nervous system, as well as high student satisfaction. Additionally, the 2023 cohort, which participated in the "Gastrointestinal Circuit" activity, outperformed the 2022 cohort, which received only traditional lecture-based instruction, on related exam questions (P = 0.0035). These findings suggest that the "Gastrointestinal Circuit" is an effective and engaging tool for improving physiology education, with potential for further refinement.