Use of a multimodal, peer-to-peer learning management system for introduction of critical clinical thinking to first year veterinary students

Abstract

Veterinary medical students need multiple thinking strategies, particularly critical clinical thinking. The curricular introduction to critical thinking is too often postponed until the clinical years. Case analyses provide such practice, but are time consuming to implement and difficult to assess in a consistent manner. In this study, we used a multimodal, peer-to-peer learning management system (CGScholar) to help introduce critical thinking to 422 1 st year veterinary students through instructor-designed clinical cases. Three consecutive 1 st year veterinary classes at the University of Illinois were studied (2015 to 2018). Students developed and published an analysis of a case, while curating information from multiple sources, using a variety of textual and visual media. They also conducted anonymous peer reviews of each other’s drafts. Instructors selected desirable characteristics of a student’s activity to track and provide automatic feedback to students via an analytics dashboard and aster plot allowing visualization of progress. The dashboard also enabled instructor(s) to view performance of the entire class, highlighting students whose performance was lagging. Online interactions were supplemented by case-specific face-to-face workshop sessions. An anonymous student survey showed experience was significantly more positive in Years 2 and 3 following inclusion of more explicit guidance about the roles of author and peer reviewer. Overall, 67% of students thought inclusion of multi-media enhanced their ability to communicate, 52% agreed multi-media enhanced their ability to understand their peers’ analyses, but students were split that the exercises contributed to their understanding of high quality literature, possibly because this was emphasized earlier.