The Effectiveness of Lecture-Integrated, Web-Supported Case Studies in Large Group Teaching

Figures & data

Table 1 Case study for lecture 5

Case Part No.	Topic: The structure and function of antibodies
1 The Case	The case: Susan was celebrating her graduation with her friends. They went to a restaurant and Susan ordered the Chef’s Special: ‘Chicken Gourmet: cooked with lemon, chopped nuts and herbs’. Ten minutes after eating her food, Susan felt sick. She soon left the table. She had a bout of diarrhoea. Susan’s friends were alerted to her condition when 15 minutes later, she didn’t return to the table. Susan had fainted. An ambulance was called in and Susan was taken into hospital.
	What was the Doctor’s diagnosis of Susan’s condition?
2 Questions	Questions: Was the chicken not cooked well? - Salmonella poisoning? How does our immune system protect us against gut microbes?

Table 2 List of sample web-links for lecture 5 (placed on WebCT)

Lecture Topic/title	Relevant background topic for Web-link	Web-link address	Summary information
Structure and function of antibodies	Antibody structure and function (provides supporting information for students)	http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/antibodies.html	These are posters containing illustrations of the antibody molecule, antibody specificity and its function in defence against infection. Alberts et al (1998).
Protein structure (provides background information for students)	http://www.biologymad.com/ (Click on AS Biology → click on the topic ‘Biochemistry’ → ‘Proteins’).	This is a good site if you would like to cover the basics in protein structure and understand how proteins (like antibodies and MHC molecules) fold to form functional proteins. (You can start by scrolling down and looking at the summary structures first). Gilbert (2003).
Protein structure (provides background information for students)	http://bmbiris.bmb.uga.edu/wampler/tutorial/prot0.html	This site offers a tutorial on peptide and protein structure, filling any gaps in basic understanding and also offering extended information. It contains some colourful illustrations. Wampler (1996).

Figure 1 Evaluation Questionnaire

Figure 2 Percentage number of students who identified the individual strategies to be useful or very useful. A) BMS students. B) BS students.

Table 3 Total number of WebCT hits for students from all four courses (n=264)

Support Material	Number of ‘Hits’ (% of group)
Web-links for lecture 3	108 (44%)
Web-links for lecture 5	62 (25%)
Glossary	73 (30%)
Solved Case study (Lecture 4)	61 (25%)
Solved Case study (Lecture 5)	28 (11%)

Table 4 Mean percentage summative test score in the Immunology section (mean +/− SD). Numbers in parentheses indicate total score for the whole module.

Course	BMS		BS Degree		HNC/CP
Background	A level	GCSE/other	A level	GCSE/other
Overall group	51.58 ± 5.01 (55.16±14.05) n=67	40.35± 3.73 (45.44±13.14) n=34	46.75 ± 4.95 (52.93±13.11) n=74	37.65 ±4.56 (41.31±15.48) n=29	52.16 ±5.83 (53.77±17.49) n=26
Accessed web-links	66.35±5.30 (63.35±14.31) n=17	46.80±3.16 (52.40±13.49) n=10	49.14±4.07 (56.85±10.69) n=7	50 ± 4.38 (49.80±17.96) n=10	60.8 ±5.74 (59.91±18.86) n=11
Did NOT access links	46.56 ± 4.28 (52.38±12.95) n=50	37.67±3.79 (42.54±12.11) n=24	46.50 ± 5.06 (52.5±13.34 ) n=67	31.16±3.82 (36.84±12.27) n=15	46.13±5.41 (49.27±15.51) n=15
Difference in mark ^*	19.5% (10%)	9% (10%)	2.5% (4%)	19% (13%)	15% (11%)

^* Difference in test score between students who did, and those who did not access web-links.

Figure 3 Mean percent summative test score for students who accessed, and those who did not access the web-links, for each of the groups tested.

Table 5 Relationship between test scores and A-level grades (Biology and Chemistry)

Course	BMS		BS
A-level subject	Biology	Chemistry	Biology	Chemistry
Total group	0.082 (0.185)	0.217 (0.242)	0.307 ^** (0.469) ^**	0.112 (0.077)
Accessed web-links	0.014 (0.087)	0.241 (0.304)	0.314 (0.809) ^*	0.885 ^** (0.732)
Did NOT access links	0.276 ^* (0.331)^*	0.309 ^* (0.264)	0.304 ^** (0.445) ^**	0.043 (0.010)

Numbers in parentheses indicate the correlation coefficient value for the whole unit.

^* p<0.05;

^** p =/< 0.01

AlbertsB., BrayD., JohnsonA., LewisJ., RaffM., RobertsK. and WalterP. (1998) Antibodies Access Excellence [online] http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/antibodies.html (accessed January 2006)

 Google Scholar

GilbertJ (2003) Biology Mad [online] http://www.biologymad.com/ (accessed January 2006)

 Google Scholar

Wampler (1996) [online] http://bmbiris.bmb.uga.edu/wampler/tutorial/prot0.html (accessed January 2006)

 Google Scholar