Dialogue-based courseware: Creating two-teacher discussion videos for anatomy education
Creators: name: See, Christopher
name: Fong, Ying Wa Lauren
name: Louie, Yee Lam Jasmine
name: Tienlan Charlotte Lin
Publisher: name: F1000 Research Limited
Year: 2023

description: This study builds on previously reported initial findings (See &amp; Wong 2022) in which we described the creation of a new format of e-learning videos using teacher-teacher dialogue. We based the innovation on our students’ views on more engaging media formats online, particularly that dialogue based “podcast style’ videos with two or more speakers are highly engaging. Our new pedagogical approach for creating e-learning videos: an educational dialogue where two lecturers sit together and cocreate the videos through a discussion covering the teaching. Interplay between two teachers, the presentation of opposing viewpoints and the resolution through scholarly argumentation has the potential to be far more engaging than a single teacher’s speech, and promote critical thinking and exploratory rather than fixed mindsets towards topics.<br> <br> This study was conducted via individual interviews with students used to build a grounded theory analysis of their learning experiences using this format of online learning, including positive and negative aspects.<br> We produced two-teacher dialogic videos as anatomy teaching materials for third year medical students. We purposively created diverse perspectives on the subjects discussed by pairing clinicians and basic scientists, or surgeons with researchers. We adopted this pedagogical approach with the aim of promoting exploratory rather than fixed mindsets as well as critical thinking towards topics in anatomy. Over 250 year 3 medical students used these “Dialogues in Anatomy” videos on various topics in neuroanatomy in their course over the academic year 2022-23. We conducted an open recruitment to online individual interviews to explore student perspectives on these videos and to understand their self-reported learning processes. These data were entered into qualitative analysis software and thematic analysis was undertaken with line by line reading of the text and condensing into themes. <br> <br> Qualitative interviews from medical year 3 students were undertaken with a total of 12 participants until theoretical saturation was reached. Three major themes were elicited from the data: Theme 1: Impact on critical thinking. Students reported the learning experience helped them by promoting critical and analytical thinking<i>. “This dialogue style goes beyond pure facts &amp; allows us to critically think and challenge ideas that are taught to us.”</i> “This gave us a chance to look at things from a critical perspective and prevented us from falling into loopholes of only listening to one side of arguments.” Theme 2: Enhancing student engagement Many students reported that this format was a highly engaging way to deliver online teaching. <i>“It’s more entertaining, maybe simply due to a change in the teaching style, or due to the constant questioning and incorporations of different perspectives.”</i> However, some students also reported finding the format less efficient, and could be distracting if the clinical discussion<i> “I liked the chatty style but for the factual information on the blood supply e.g. which arteries go where, a simple presentation would be more efficient” </i>Theme 3: Potential for future use and other use-cases Some students expressed their desire to see this format employed in other education settings. <i>“This podcast-style teaching would be perfect for reflecting interdisciplinary teaching through different professionals’ perspectives on clinical care!”</i><br> <br> The interview data gave some support to our hypothesis that dialogue-based videos had positively impacted students’ attitudes towards exploratory and critical thinking and increase engagement. Student feedback also helping in iterative improvements through the negative comments surrounding the efficiency of delivery for ‘purely factual’ information. We continue to expand our e-learning material development through this avenue, and encourage other teachers to consider trying it, particularly those teaching interdisciplinary subjects. Overall, our innovative dual-teacher dialogue-based videos have been well received and offer promising pedagogical potential.