Project Investigator(s): Carol Ann Courneya, Associate Professor, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences; Susan Cox, Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health
Project Description
This project will focus on the role of visual learning for undergraduate medical students at UBC. Medical students often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information they are required to master. Some students learn more effectively when they utilize visual images rather than traditional written notes in their studies. Encouraging students to learn through visual note-taking holds great potential for enhancing their learning. This involves both viewing visual notes created and shared by others (e.g., through Instagram) and actually learning skills in visual note-taking. Our study will create a visual note-taking workshop and assess the impacts for student learning.
Research Questions
1. What are the impacts of a half-day workshop on visual note-taking?
2. How can this approach be integrated into medical and other health professional training?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
This work is potentially applicable to all health science courses at UBC. With repeated offerings and assessment of the workshop we will create on visual note-taking it will be possible to refine an approach that effectively offers students the ability to learn about and practice skills in visual note-taking. We plan to offer 4 to 6 half day workshops over the coming year. As noted above, students registered in FLEX (Med 419/429) will have the opportunity to work with us in offering and assessing the impacts of the workshop and may also train as facilitators for future workshops.