Quiz Discuss Compare: Using Audience Response Devices to Actively Engage Students

Abstract

We describe a modification of the think-pair-share (TPS) active learning session called Quiz Discuss Compare (QDC) that uses audience response devices (clickers). Feedback from individual students and from student government association representatives regarding the session was positive. Correlative data from two different voluntary QDC sessions demonstrate that students who attend score significantly higher on high-stakes summative exams (p < 0.001) using a one-way ANOVA analysis. This difference is not detected when exam scores are analyzed using the same cohorts in a different course. Importantly, by using clickers, a single faculty member is able to run the session, avoiding the requirement of multiple facilitators and faculty resources. This QDC was made available on a voluntary basis to the fall 2013 cohort of first-year medical students at St. George’s University. We observed a statistically significant increase in exam performance when compared to those students who elected not to attend. Based on these findings, we have incorporated these sessions as a formal component of our Medical Genetics and Genomics course module.