Using Student Generated Memes to Review Content and Build Class Community

Memes in popular culture are defined as an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online, especially through social media. In the Spring of 2020 biological memes became an integral aspect of my small 400‐level Cancer Biology course at Westminster College, organically developing as a course component through student initiative. One individual emailed the students and instructor a single meme tying the movie Shrek to the tumor suppressor p21, and this new method of learning and reviewing content quickly became an embedded aspect of the course. For the remainder of the semester students were encouraged (but not required) to add memes to an email thread as new content was learned. In addition, exam questions were used where the students used a provided meme to explain a particular concept. An end of semester survey was conducted to assess the students’ perceptions on the effect of memes on their ability to learn and review concepts. 60% of students indicated that they created memes (developing between 3 and 10 during the course of the semester) and 100% reviewed the memes of others. Likert scale rankings (1‐5, strongly disagree to strongly agree) indicated that students believed that creating memes helped them learn (4.1) and review (4.2) course content, which was at a level just below the use of course notes (4.5). Similarly, they felt that reviewing the memes of others helped them to study content (4.3) comparable to making diagrams or reviewing notes (4.6). In addition to these potential academic benefits, meme use also helped to build a course community, one that became essential in the wake of a mid‐semester transition to online learning because of the Covid‐19 pandemic. This community building effect was likely due in part to students creating memes about the course experience in addition to those directly related to content. All of the students strongly agreed that meme bolstered a sense of class community both within and outside of the classroom. Furthermore, when the course transitioned online 90% of students strongly agreed that memes helped to maintain this community. This student initiated active learning methodology has since led to the incorporation of meme use in other courses at Westminster, as bonus activities to supplement learning. This presentation will look at the initial assessment of meme use, provide examples of course generated memes and student interpretations of their meaning, discuss possible future usage of memes as a learning tool, and explore plans to broaden research into the effectiveness of this methodology for engaging students with each other and their learning.