Impact of Student Response Systems on Initial Learning and Retention of Course Content in Health Sciences Students.

OBJECTIVE

To assess student learning in two intervention courses when using a student response system (SRS) in combination with content quizzes (CQ) as a teaching/ learning strategy.

METHODS

A within-subject design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of SRS use in combination with CQ on initial learning and retention of course content across two health science graduate-level courses. Thirty-three graduate students were enrolled in each course, and 24 participated in the study. Course exam questions were divided between content covered with standard course instruction including CQ and content covered with CQ and the SRS (CQ-SRS). Performance on these exam questions was analyzed with a two-tailed t-test, and odds ratios were calculated.

RESULTS

Students performed significantly better 6 months later on CQ-SRS-based questions.

CONCLUSION

Findings of this study suggest that use of a SRS with CQ supports initial learning and enhances long-term retention of course content better than use of CQ alone.