Research design for the assessment of an in-class, student-driven teaching activity

The integration of in-class teaching activities to enhance student learning can be a long, thought filled process involving many stages; initial activity design, pilot tests, subsequent refinements, and full assessment. This progression has been ongoing over the past two years in the evidence-based design and integration of Movement Guided Learning© (MGL), an in-class student-driven activity workbook that guides students through applications of musculoskeletal anatomy including physical movements/stretches, surface palpations/visualizations, and extensions of knowledge with scenarios/case studies. Results from two pilots of MGL, one at the community college level (n=29) and one at the undergraduate university level (n=20), indicated that students not only learned musculoskeletal anatomy (improvement: 11.5% to 29.2% (t(24)=-6.5, p <0.005), they also enjoyed MGL with 96% of students endorsing future use. Expanding off of the pilot success, the proposed research is designed as a prospective, observer-blind, randomized crossover, superiority comparison of the MGL workbook against a traditional Q&A tutorial session with two research objectives: (1) to quantify the effectiveness of MGL as a pedagogical modality for teaching musculoskeletal anatomy (using preto post- knowledge tests) and (2) to fully assess the student-perceived usefulness of MGL using the collective domains of clarity, applicability, and helpfulness (using a mixed-methods questionnaire). The cohort is undergraduate students in Kinesiology and Athletic Therapy. Currently with the design stage, the detailed research methodology and assessment strategies will be presented.