'Heart Shots'‐A Classroom Activity to Kindle Active Learning

Objective The present study aimed to provide undergraduate medical students an opportunity to apply their knowledge in cardiovascular concepts to real life situations Methods The setting chosen was Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Campus, Manipal University, India. A group activity named 'Heart Shots' was implemented for a batch of 105 MBBS students for whom the authors were involved in taking cardiovascular topics. Students were divided into 10 groups each having ten or eleven students. They were requested to make a video presentation pertaining to the application of cardiovascular principles to real life situations, at the end of the block (teaching unit). The presentation was required to be of only pictures/photos and no text material, with a maximum duration of seven minutes. Results More than 95% of students opined that the activity helped them to apply their knowledge in CVS to a real life situation and understand the relevance of Physiology in medicine and to revise the topic. More than 90% agreed that the activity helped them to apply their creativity in improving their knowledge and to make a link between concepts rather than learning them as isolated factsItems Mean scores (SD) Cumulative of agree to strongly agree Agree (%) Cumulative of disagree to strongly disagree Agree (%)1. Apply my knowledge in CVS to a real life situation or context/clinical condition 3.4 (0.50) 99 1 1. Engage in collaborative learning with my group members 2.8 (0.83) 74.3 24.8 1. Apply my creativity in improving my knowledge 3.2 (0.56) 93.3 6.7 1. Refer other learning resources which I would not usually do during my routine studying 2.9 (0.91) 74.3 23.8 1. Experience learning by doing 3.1 (0.69) 87.6 12.4 1. Revise the topic 3.2 (0.57) 95.2 4.8 1. Understand the relevance of Physiology in medicine 3.4 (0.57) 95.2 4.8 1. Enhance my interest in learning Physiology 3.2 (0.78) 86.7 13.3 1. Find a way to improve my retention of CVS topics 3.2 (0.74) 89.5 10.5 1. Make a link between concepts rather than learning them as isolated facts 3.3 (0.77) 90.5 9.5 1. Clarify my misconceptions/doubts I had about the topic because of the group discussions 2.8 (0.83) 68.6 28.6 1. Understand the relevance of Physiology in day to day activities 3.2 (0.67) 91.5 7.7In response to the open‐ended question about listing the ways in which the activity helped them in improving their knowledge in CVS, students revealed that it helped to integrate knowledge and to think out of the box.Table 2: Students’ responses to the ways in which the activity helped them in improving their knowledge in CVS. Helped to integrate knowledge Helped to recall Getting to learn a lot of new knowledge Group discussion Colorful diagrams gained more interest Videos helped to correlate knowledge with daily activities, apply to real life situations More understanding Linking of isolated facts to one Relevant linkage to syllabus Revision of topics Explored creativity and helped to improve presentation skills Information gathered during stress‐free situation will last longer Helped to think out of the box Recollecting previous knowledge Pictures and videos make learning better Destressing Further stimulated interest in CVS As the presentation was from classmates, learning was more interesting Learning from other sources (internet) Further studying in detail Makes the subject more relevant Increased interest in subjectConclusions Based on the feedback we conclude that the activity was student‐centered and it facilitated learning.