To address the need for greater flexibility in access to higher education, an online graduate course in physiology using case studies was developed and offered in summer 2012. Topics in both animal and human physiology were organized as modules that contained a case study with questions, a prerecorded online lecture, and three research journal…

Quiz-based and collaborative teaching strategies have previously been found to be efficient for the improving meaningful learning of physiology during lectures. These approaches have, however, not been investigated during laboratory exercises. In the present study, we compared the impact of solving quizzes individually and in groups with…

In this article, we review how we interact with medical students in our efforts to teach blood pressure regulation and systemic cardiovascular control along with related elements of respiratory and exercise physiology. Rather than provide a detailed lecture with key facts, we attempted to outline our approach to teaching integrative cardiovascular…

This article describes a new hands-on, or "kinesthetic," activity for use in a physiology lecture hall to help students comprehend an important concept in cardiopulmonary physiology known as oxygen carrying capacity. One impetus for designing this activity was to address the needs of students who have a preference for kinesthetic…

We investigated whether an active learning approach, facilitated by a personal response system, would lead to improved student engagement and learning outcomes in large-group physiology lectures for undergraduate science students. We focused on encouraging students' active learning in lectures, whereas previous studies have made more use of…

This study investigated the effectiveness of role play in a large undergraduate science class. The targeted population consisted of 298 students enrolled in 2 sections of an undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology course taught by the same instructor. The section engaged in the role-play activity served as the study group, whereas the section…

Growing science apathy at the K-12 education level represents an alarming development with potentially devastating consequences at individual, societal and economic levels. Technology has been incorporated in science education without fundamentally improving test scores or student attitudes. We claim the core of the problem is how technology is…

Learning is an active process, and, as such, interactive lectures are considered as the educational best practice. This study investigated the efficacy of interactive lecturing in a module of eight respiratory physiology lectures in a second-year Physiology course with two distinct subcohorts: students with strong science backgrounds and those…

A study of 30 first-year medical students in a physiology course found that frequent evaluation had a profound negative effect on learning, with students adopting a surface reproductive approach geared to passing exams rather than integrating knowledge. Lectures and curriculum organization failed to affect student use and structure of knowledge.…