remedial teaching; e-learning; students’ profiles; histology; remédiation; cours à distance; profils d'étudiants; histologie
Abstract :
[en] Introduction and aim of the study. An online remedial course was associated to Histology practical teaching in the third year of the Bachelor's degree in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Liège. The main characteristics of this program were (i) voluntary enrolment, (ii) structured and progressive learning, (iii) individualized guidance and (iv) the opportunity for each student to work at his/her own pace.
For each organ system, three levels of exercises were developed by combining the institutional e-learning environment (eCampus) and the virtual microscopy application Cytomine/Shareview. Level 1 consisted in short exercises aiming to revise the theoretical notions essential to the proper understanding of histological observations. Level 2 consisted in complete and guided description of histological slides very similar to those observed during in-class practical labs. Level 3 consisted in identification and description of unknown histological slides. The present study aimed at determining the learning profiles of participants in the remedial course and at making out the course’s effects on each profile in terms of engagement, perceptions and performance.
Material and methods. Engagement and performance of each student were recorded during in-class practical labs and during remedial course. At the end of the remedial course and before summative assessment, students' perception was evaluated by an on-line survey. Performance to the summative assessment was also recorded.
Results. Despite the small number of participants (n=22), four learning profiles could be determined. Profiles differ from each other essentially in terms of students’ strategic choices when entering the course and regarding their engagement in remedial exercises. Students' perceptions in relation to the remedial course were generally positive, regardless of the learning strategy they adopted. Effects on performance in summative assessment were only observable for students who developed engaged or strategical learning profiles.
