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Enhancing Early Tertiary Students’ Education: a Novel Lecture Learning Objectives Strategy

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Abstract

While university lectures enable large volumes of complex material to be taught efficiently, this format requires students to discriminate between core concepts and examples, applications and anecdotes. Here we present a lecture slide learning objectives method which builds this capability in Level 1 tertiary students in preclinical sciences. Our method applies the principles of constructive alignment to individual teaching activities. Students report the use of this lecturing methodology results in improved focus, decreased stress during lectures and greater preparedness for assessment (n = 93). This practicable addition to the lecture slides greatly improves the student experience both during and following teaching sessions.

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Abbreviations

LO:

Learning Objectives

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, W. A, 6009, Australia

    Amber E. Boyatzis, Daniela Ulgiati & Elizabeth A. Quail

  2. School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, W. A, 6009, Australia

    Elizabeth A. Quail

Authors
  1. Amber E. Boyatzis
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  2. Daniela Ulgiati
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  3. Elizabeth A. Quail
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Contributions

E. Q. designed and developed the novel LO strategy described in this manuscript. E. Q. and D. U. trialled the novel LO strategy in unit 2. A. B. and E. Q. designed and deployed the student survey with assistance from D. U. A. B. analysed the results of the student survey. A. B., E. Q. and D. U. contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amber E. Boyatzis.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

The student survey was approved by the Human Research Ethics office of the University of Western Australia (RA/4/20/5605).

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was given by all the participants prior to taking part in this study.

Consent for Publication

Informed consent for publication was given by all the participants prior to taking part in this study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Boyatzis, A.E., Ulgiati, D. & Quail, E.A. Enhancing Early Tertiary Students’ Education: a Novel Lecture Learning Objectives Strategy. Med.Sci.Educ. 32, 21–25 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01488-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01488-4

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