AUTHOR=Posner Mareike G. , Dempsey Nina C. , Unsworth Amanda J. 

TITLE=The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students

JOURNAL=British Journal of Biomedical Science

VOLUME=Volume 80 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontierspartnerships.org/journals/british-journal-of-biomedical-science/articles/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11494

DOI=10.3389/bjbs.2023.11494

ISSN=2474-0896

ABSTRACT=As part of the Biomedical Sciences undergraduate degree course students are required to apply biological principles to the interpretation of clinical case studies and diagnosis of patients. Case study-based learning i.e., application of knowledge to patient diagnosis, is new to most students as case studies do not form part of non-applied A level courses in biological sciences. This approach is an example of Problem Based Learning (PBL) which has been shown to support higher levels of student learning, encouraging critical thinking and analysis. However, historically we have observed student performance in applied case study-based assessments to be lower than that observed for assessments based on detailing fundamental biological principles. We hypothesised that PBL teaching delivery would help students prepare for case study-based assessments and demonstrate their critical evaluation and problem-solving skills, improving student performance and progression. We also hypothesised that the student learning experience would also be enhanced by a PBL teaching delivery approach. 
We therefore redesigned a second year Biomedical Sciences degree haematology unit: ‘Blood Science, with a stronger focus on problem-based learning, including case study focussed activities throughout the unit. We subsequently analysed whether this problem-based learning focussed unit design improves student experience and feedback and student performance for biomedical science undergraduate students.
We present here, our teaching strategy and the impact our changes had on student feedback for the 21/22 and 22/23 academic years.  Our findings demonstrate that case study-based activities and tutorial problem-based learning exercises, when incorporated into the curriculum design, can improve student experience in the Biomedical Sciences and other biological science undergraduate degree courses.