interdisciplinary

An Evaluation of the Baseline Trait Polymathy of Undergraduates from the NUS College of Humanities and Sciences

cdtlsd Paper Presentations , ,

Hui Ting CHNG1*, Ryan Ray Yen LEE1, and Maiya MURPHY2

1Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science (FOS)
2Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

*phacht@nus.edu.sg

 

Chng, H. T., Lee, R. R. Y., & Murphy, M. (2023). An evaluation of the baseline trait polymathy of undergraduates from the NUS College of Humanities and Sciences [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/an-evaluation-of-the-baseline-trait-polymathy-of-undergraduates-from-the-nus-college-of-humanities-and-sciences/

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Polymath, interdisciplinary

 

CATEGORY

Paper Presentation 

 

ABSTRACT

In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world where problems are multifaceted, complex, and intertwined, interdisciplinary approaches are increasingly recognised as necessary to solve these challenges (Araki & Cotellessa, 2020). History has shown us that many innovations were developed by polymaths, individuals who rejected disciplinary boundaries, learnt deeply about diverse subjects, and could transit seamlessly among disciplines (Araki & Cotellessa, 2020, Burke, 2020, Root-Bernstein, 2003).

 

Recognising the importance of interdisciplinarity, recently NUS formed the College of Humanities and Sciences (CHS), where students from the Faculty of Science (FOS) and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) learn several core courses including interdisciplinary courses together so that they will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to thrive in this fast-changing world. However, some questions remain to be answered: Do students value interdisciplinarity or polymathy? How interested are they to engage in disciplines other than their own major(s)?

 

As there is still a lack of consensus on the definition and conceptual domains of polymathy, Araki and Cotellessa (2020) proposed to adapt the 4Ps framework from creativity research to study polymathy. The framework can be used to analyse polymathy in four perspectives: person, process, product, and press. The “person” perspective relates to an individual’s abilities, traits, and fluctuating state characteristics. In terms of trait, Araki (2015, 2018) found that polymaths exhibited both disciplinary depth and breadth, along with the ability to integrate across disciplines. However, at present, there are no psychometric tools available to evaluate an individual’s trait polymathy as past works mainly used biological analyses or hermeneutic-phenomenological methods (Araki, 2018).

 

This study thus aims to evaluate the baseline trait polymathy of undergraduates from NUS CHS based on the constructs described by Araki and Cotellessa (2020). A self-developed survey comprising Likert-scale questions for students to rate their disposition towards and the extent of value they give towards the pursuit of depth, breadth, and integration of diverse disciplines will be used. In August of Academic Year (AY) 2023/24, students from NUS CHS will be invited to participate and respond to the survey. Data analysis will be conducted during Recess Week and data will be available to be presented at HECC 2023.

 

As research about polymathy is still in its infancy, our study will be the first to evaluate baseline trait polymathy using a self-developed survey. It will inform us on NUS CHS’ undergraduates’ disposition and valuation towards interdisciplinarity, which would aid educators in designing effective interdisciplinary courses.

 

REFERENCES

Araki, M. E. (2015). Polymathic leadership: Theoretical foundation and construct development [Master’s thesis, Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro]. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3166622

Araki, M. E. (2018). Polymathy: a new outlook. J. Genius Eminence, 3, 66–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.18536//jge.2018.04.3.1.06

Araki, M. E., & Cotellessa, A. J. (2020). Creative polymathy and the COVID-19 crisis. Frontiers in Psychology, (2020), 3580. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.601508

Burke, P. (2020). The polymath: A cultural history from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag. Yale University Press. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv15pjzh6

Root-Bernstein, R. S. (2003). The art of innovation: Polymaths and the universality of the creative process. In L. V. Shavinina (Ed.), International Handbook of Innovation (pp. 267-78). Elsevier.

 

Opening up the Classroom: Student-led Learning in a Law and Society Course

cdtlsd Paper Presentations , , , , ,

George Baylon RADICS
Deparment of Sociology and Anthropology, NUS and NUS College

socrgb@nus.edu.sg

 

Radics, G. B. (2023). Opening up the classroom: Student-led learning in a law and society course [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/opening-up-the-classroom-student-led-learning-in-a-law-and-society-course/

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education 

 

KEYWORDS

Student-led learning, project-based work, active learning, interdisciplinary, independent thinking

 

CATEGORY

Paper Presentation 

 

ABSTRACT

Upon graduation, students are expected to lead as opposed to follow, collaborate as opposed to compete, and think broadly as opposed to narrowly. Thus, university education is changing in response to evolving student needs and the realities of workplace. Traditional lectures, heavily weighted final exams, and research papers on narrow topics do not build the skills students need to survive the increasingly competitive job market. Student-led learning provides an opportunity for students to take ownership over their education through leading class discussions and collaborative project-based work. This presentation will explore a student-led learning course at NUS College entitled “Law in the Making”, where students led discussions on legal issues, set up meetings with lawmakers, and drafted a law that they debated at the end of the course.

 

Student-led teaching involves students teaching to their peers, whilst their peers participate actively in the process to facilitate student-led learning (Marvell et al., 2013). Here, educators seek to empower their students by giving them control of and responsibility for their learning (McKeachie, 1990; Candy, 1991). Business schools experimented with case studies to develop more dynamic, well-rounded problem solvers (Christenson, 1987), while the fields of accountancy (Adler et al., 2007), geography (Marvell et al., 2013), and pharmacy (Po, 1994) have also attempted to create student-led teaching approaches to do the same. “When asked what student skills needed improving there was remarkable agreement across a wide range of employers. All felt that non-technical skills needed further development…namely interpersonal skills, team working, presentation, report writing, CV design, project management, time management” (Sneddon et al., 1995, p. 84). At the same time, there has been a growing recognition that traditional methods of teaching (primarily tutorials and lectures) may perpetuate the opposite, namely dependency and passivity (Kremer & McGuiness, 1998).

 

While NUS has gained international recognition for its research, further efforts can be made to re-envision the classroom and move further away from traditional “chalk and talk” lectures and tutorials. NUS College, the university’s new honours college aims to “break open the classroom” and to provide “rigorous and stimulating interdisciplinary education designed to help students cultivate the necessary skills to work effectively across boundaries, so that they are able to respond to the challenges of the 21st century.” In the NUS College course NHS2059 entitled “Law in the Making,” students were each assigned a reading to discuss in class, worked in groups to set up meetings with lawmakers, and formed teams to draft a law that they debated at the end of the course. While the course attempted to place more control in the hands of the students, certain challenges emerged, such as complaints of being overworked, underdeveloped professional communication skills, and an overreliance on technology to support public speaking.

 

This paper will begin with a review of the literature on student-lead learning, then discuss how it was applied to the course NHS2059 “Law in the Making”. The presentation will then explore some of the challenges encountered in the course, as well as some strategies employed to address them. It will provide a glimpse into how student-led learning has the potential to empower students to become more engaged and interested in learning so long as the right balance of student-led and traditional teacher-led methods are employed. Additionally, it asserts that the right incentives can encourage prompt and professional communication, and teaching students how to become better teachers can reduce their overreliance on technology.

 

REFERENCES

Adler, R. W., Whiting, R. H., Wynn-Williams, K. (2004). Student-led and teacher-led case presentations: empirical evidence about learning styles in an accounting course. Accounting Education, 13(2), 213-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639280410001676620

Candy, P. C. (1991). Self-direction for the lifelong learner. Jossey-Bass.

Christensen, C. R. (1987). Teaching and the case method. Harvard Business School.

Kremer, J., & McGuinness, C. (1998). Cutting the cord: student‐led discussion groups in higher education. Education + Training, 40(2), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400919810206848

Marvell, A., Simm, D., Schaaf, R., & Harper, R. (2013). Students as scholars: evaluating student-led learning and teaching during fieldwork. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(4), 547-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2013.811638

McKeachie, W. J. (1990). Research on college teaching: the historical background. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(2), 189–200. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-0663.82.2.189

Po, L. A. (1994), Brainstorming a pharmacy syllabus: involving employers in curriculum design, in I. Sneddon, & J. Kremer (eds), An Enterprising Curriculum: Teaching Innovations in Higher Education, HMSO, Belfast.

Sneddon, I., Kremer, J., & Lindsay, B. (1995). Evaluating Enterprise at Queen’s, APAS, Belfast.

 

Teaching a Large-class Transdisciplinary Course—Challenges and Enablers

cdtlsd Paper Presentations , , , ,

Aaron Eng Seng CHIA
Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management,
College of Design and Engineering (CDE)

aaron_chia@nus.edu.sg

 

Chia, A. E. S. (2023). Teaching a large-class transdisciplinary course—Challenges and enablers [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/teaching-a-large-class-transdisciplinary-course-challenges-and-enablers/

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education 

 

KEYWORDS

Transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary, large-scale systems engineering, systems thinking

 

CATEGORY

Paper Presentation 

 

INTRODUCTION

A master’s elective, IE5404 “Large Scale Systems Engineering (LSSE)” was converted into a core course this year. As such, the class size ballooned from about 30 students to 82 students. This requires rethinking on how to teach already challenging systems concepts to large classes. This paper describes the challenges and enablers of conducting such a course.

 

LSSE deals with the complexities of large-scale systems using systems approach and systems engineering to understand and conceptualise the planning, design, and management of large-scale systems. Large-scale systems are inherently transdisciplinary/interdisciplinary. For example, an economic system is not just about business, but politics, technology, people, environment, the legal system, and so on. In addition, students learn about interconnections between different parts of the system, stakeholder’s behaviours, ecosystems, decision making and unintended consequences, cost analysis, and so on.

 

CHALLENGES AND ENABLERS

A large part of an engineer’s education is often technical/analytical in nature, and this makes teaching systems concepts challenging (Azad & Moore, 2022). Moreover, systems concepts cover organisations, behaviours, and dynamics, topics that engineers are often not familiar. In previous courses, the pedagogy includes lectures, cases, stories, role play, videos, class discussions, e-forum, assignments, group projects, examinations, readings, and self-reflection. With smaller classes, lectures took up about 50% of the time, with cases, stories, role play, and discussions taking the remaining time. However, it will not be possible to engage students well, given the same amount of time and almost triple the class size. Hence, questions to myself were:

  1. Which pedagogy needs to be modified/ changed to engage large classes?
  2. How to use student and lecturer’s time more effectively in class and assessments?

 

Teach Less Learn More

The concept of teaching less is doing things differently (Blankenship, 2019). Hence, the lecture materials were reduced, giving more time for discussions and questions. This was supplemented by more reading materials for students to learn by themselves. For master’s courses, the amount of tutorial time is either reduced or non-existent. A 30-minute tutorial was introduced for each session. This allowed time to work on difficult problems or concepts. It also allowed students to work on their projects. The project was structured such that students could carry out one part after each session. Students applied immediately what they have learned and clarify any doubts they have. This would also reduce their time to meet up for discussions later—important for part-time students where time is a premium.

 

Assessment as Pedagogy

The use of assessments in promoting deep learning in higher institutions have been advocated by many (Masuku et al, 2021). In the past, students did an individual assignment and comments/ feedback were given to the students. In the large class, students carried out a group assignment by watching a video (e.g., poverty) before answering questions. They got to discuss and learn from one another. It was also found that feedback to the group assignments were less than the individual assignments. This also reduced the amount of marking required.

 

Another new element introduced was a peer review of each other’s interim group project. Previously, groups presented their projects at the end of the semester. Students were able to get more formative feedback on their learning through their peers (although this introduced more work for the lecturer).

 

With large classes, there would not be enough time for all the groups to present during class time. Here, students made a video of their group presentation. In this way, they could improve their presentations and the lecturer had more time to evaluate them. The drawback was that there was no question-and-answer (Q&A) from the lecturer and class. This was mitigated by the earlier peer reviews and lecturer feedback via the report.

 

Student Feedback

The students like the concepts learned and the case studies. The common feedback given (even in previous courses) was that while they understood the need to cover diverse topics, the scope was wide, and some topics (especially non-engineering ones) were difficult to understand. More than half of the feedback respondents (57) for the large class nominated the lecturer for teaching awards (first time this has occured).

 

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The axiom ‘Teach Less, Learn More” is often true. Students can obtain facts from the Internet and even answers from CHATGPT. Hence, class time is best spent teaching metacognitive thinking. Assessment as a pedagogy is even more important now.

 

REFERENCES

Azad, A., and Moore, E. (2022). Lessons learned from teaching systems thinking to engineering students. Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG22) Conference Proceedings.

Blankenship, S. (2019). Teach Less Learn More. Kreatif Beats. https://kreatifbeats.com/2019/03/16/teach-less-learn-more/

Masuku, M. M., Jili, N. N., & Sabela, P. T. (2021). Assessment as a pedagogy and measuring tool in promoting deep learning. International Journal of Higher Education, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v10n2p274

 

Scaffolding Team Dynamics for Team Effectiveness in Project-based Learning Courses

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , , ,

Vinod VASNANI1*, Ameek KAUR2, and Randall SIE1

1Institute for Engineering Leadership, College of Design and Engineering
2NUS Business School

*vinod@nus.edu.sg

 

Vasnani, V., Kaur, A., & Sie, R. (2023). Scaffolding team dynamics for team effectiveness in project based learning courses [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/scaffolding-team-dynamics-for-team-effectiveness-in-project-based-learning-courses/
 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Team dynamics, interdisciplinary, coaching, entrepreneurship, scaffolding

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

ABSTRACT

Experiential learning, a process in which learning occurs through experience (Kolb, 1984) is increasingly being used in several domains of education, namely, engineering, medicine, business etc. (e.g. Conger et al., 2010; Yardley et al., 2012; Kosnik et al., 2013). Experiential learning can take many forms, such as case studies, simulations, and projects. The experience of working on real-life team projects provides a rich learning opportunity for students where real-life stakeholders offer students the opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge they acquire. In the experiential learning course MT5920 “Enterprise Development” (National University of Singapore, n.d.), students work in teams to identify new market opportunities for real existing technologies from participating companies, ranging from multinational companies, small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to growth startups. The class setting emulates a real industry environment and process for new product/solution design and validation. Students benefit from working with stakeholders from real organisations. At the same time, the course provides a safe and sheltered environment to experiment and take risks.

 

Team dynamics is a key component for the success of projects in the real world, and it is also a key component in this course. Student teams manage team dynamics throughout the course whilst working and completing their various project assignments and deliverables. This course follows a project-based learning pedagogical approach (De Graaf & Kolmos, 2003). Project-based learning enables a process in which the students can learn, experience, reflect and manage team dynamics. This is accompanied by a deliberate effort by the instructors to scaffold the process of managing team dynamics, which subsequently impacts the team effectiveness in carrying out its project with the actual companies.

The teams are typically multidisciplinary and multicultural. Along with the challenges of finding new market opportunities for these companies, a common challenge that arises for the students is team dynamics. The right team dynamics greatly impacts the success of the team and the intended outcomes (Delice et al, 2019; DiTullio, 2010 ). As mentioned in Kokotsaki et al. (2016), project-based learning is a student-centred form of instruction characterised by students’ autonomy, constructive investigations, goal setting, collaboration, communication, and reflection within real-world practices. The team dynamics scaffolding effort in MT5920 exhibits the above-mentioned characteristics.

 

In this course, these tools are applied to manage team dynamics:

  • GRPI [Beckhard, R. (1972)],
  • A self-assessment (National University of Singapore, n.d.)
  • Team reviews and interventions
  • Individual self-reflection

 

Please refer to the chart below for an overview of the course and the various tools that we apply.

MT5920: Course overview with team dynamics scaffold

 

The scaffolding on team dynamics takes students through a structured process. It begins with self-assessment and understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses followed by a Team Dynamics Workshop. This explores conflict management, communication styles using the self-assessment, and culminates in the creation of a team GRPI1. Data about the team dynamics is collected on a continuous informal basis through student mentors (alumni who act as mentors and join the teams), as well as on a formal basis through student self- and peer review evaluations and surveys. Mid-semester, based on evaluations and surveys completed, an individual team review takes place between all team members and faculty. This is a critical review to gauge and improve on team effectiveness. Any other team dynamics are dealt with on an ad hoc basis through team meetings with faculty or student mentors. All the while, teams reflect and update their GRPI. At the end of the course, students submit individual reflection papers that have specific questions regarding team dynamics, ensuring students gain practical insights and skills for effective teamwork in the future.

 

We have found that this scaffolding process helps teams to navigate the four stages of Tuckman’s (1965) group development, i.e. forming, norming, storming, and performing. The storming phase is critical for the team to emerge from, in order to work effectively towards the end of the course for the final presentation to all stakeholders. This paper will discuss the motivation for this scaffolding and the benefits for both the instructors and the teams. The approach and steps used will be shared as an approach that can be adapted for use by other such courses.

 

ENDNOTE

  1. GRPI is an acronym that stands for Goals, Roles, Processes, and Interpersonal relationships. The GRPI model is an approach to team development that was introduced in the early 1970s by Richard Beckard, an organizational development expert and professor at MIT.

 

REFERENCES

Beckhard, R. (1972). Optimizing team-building efforts. Journal of Contemporary Business, 1(3), 23-32.

Conger, A. J., Gilchrist, B., Holloway, J. P., Huang-Saad, A., Sick, V., & Zurbuchen, T. H. (2010, April). Experiential learning programs for the future of engineering education. In 2010 IEEE transforming engineering education: Creating interdisciplinary skills for complex global environments (pp. 1-14). IEEE.

Delice, F., Rousseau, M., & Feitosa, J. (2019). Advancing teams research: What, when, and how to measure team dynamics over time. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1324. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01324

De Graaf, E., & Kolmos, A. (2003). Characteristics of problem-based learning. International Journal of Engineering Education, 19(5), 657-62. Retrieved from https://www.ijee.ie/articles/Vol19-5/IJEE1450.pdf.

DiTullio, L. (2010). Project team dynamics: enhancing performance, improving results. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Kokotsaki, D., Menzies, V., & Wiggins, A. (2016). Project-based learning: A review of the literature. Improving Schools, 19(3), 267-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480216659733

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.

Kosnik, R. D., Tingle, J. K., & Blanton III, E. L. (2013). Transformational learning in business education: The pivotal role of experiential learning projects. American Journal of Business Education (AJBE), 6(6), 613-30. https://doi.org/10.19030/ajbe.v6i6.8166

National University of Singapore (n.d.). Enterprise Development. IEL website. Retrieved June 20, 2023, from https://cde.nus.edu.sg/iel/graduate/overview-of-graduate-modules/enterprise-development/

National University of Singapore (n.d.). Self Assessments -16 Personalities. Centre for Future-ready Graduates. Retrieved June 20, 2023, from https://nus.edu.sg/cfg/students/career-resources/self-assessments

Tuckman, B. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-99. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0022100

Yardley, S., Teunissen, P. W., & Dornan, T. (2012). Experiential learning: Transforming theory into practice. 63. Medical Teacher, 34(2), e102-e115. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2012.643264

 

Conditions for Interdisciplinary Learning–Some Preliminary Reflections on Designing and Facilitating “Global Experience Tokyo: City, Culture and Technology”

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , ,

LEE Chee Keng
NUS College

ckenglee@nus.edu.sg

 

Lee, C. K. (2023). Conditions for interdisciplinary learning–Some preliminary reflections on designing and facilitating “Global Experience Tokyo: City, Culture and Technology” [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/conditions-for-interdisciplinary-learning-some-preliminary-reflections-on-designing-and-facilitating-global-experience-tokyo-city-culture-and-technology/

 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Interdisciplinary, learning, experiential learning, independent study

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

ABSTRACT

This Lighting Talk explores the sub-theme of Interdisciplinarity and Education by reflecting on the design and facilitation experience of Global Experience Tokyo (GEx Tokyo) 2023, guided by the questions:1) What are the conditions necessary for effective interdisciplinary learning? 2) What are the possible preparations that could bring about these conditions?

 

Global Experience (GEx) is a specially curated course in which students spend a month living in and studying an international city. Each GEx is guided by a theme. The theme for GEx Tokyo is “City, Culture and Technology.” The objective of the course is to allow students to examine and reflect on the dynamic and transformative relationship between city, culture, and technology through a set of interweaving and interdisciplinary encounters and site visits. In GEx Tokyo 2023, students attended seminars with guest professors, workshops with practitioners, masterclasses with experts, and field visits to start-ups, research centres, and government offices. Prior to arriving in Tokyo, students attended preparatory seminars that familiarise them with some of the anticipated topics and social situations in GEx Tokyo. Students were also required to propose an independent study research project related to the theme of GEx Tokyo prior to arriving in Tokyo.

 

Based on discussions with students during independent research project consultations, it became apparent that despite the explicitly stated course objective and the purposeful layering of the programme itineraries, students were not drawing upon the interdisciplinary itineraries to deepen and enrich their independent study projects. Preliminary student feedback suggests that students formulated their Independent Study proposals with disciplinary-based frames and experienced the diverse GEx Tokyo itineraries largely through the lens of their Independent Study project. Tellingly, they found all the experts they met on the trip knowledgeable but indicated that few helped them achieve their learning objectives.

 

This experience prompted the questions I would like to contemplate in this Lighting Talk:

  1. What are the conditions necessary for effective interdisciplinary learning in general and for GEx Tokyo in particular?
  2. What are the possible preparations that could bring about these conditions?

 

Discussions on interdisciplinarity and education often focus on how specific disciplines can connect to and benefit from interdisciplinary links, as well as how interdisciplinary links can be built across different disciplines in a course. Such discussions extend into how to operationalise interdisciplinary learning objectives by describing and assessing interdisciplinary learning.

 

This Lighting Talk attempts to reflect on GEx Tokyo 2023 student feedback through the integrated lens of literature examining the entanglement of personal epistemologies and emotions in students’ thinking, and those discussing learning environments, to contemplate the conditions that could motivate and facilitate effective interdisciplinary learning.

 

Developing a Card Game to Promote Interest and Awareness of Microbiomes Among Diverse Undergraduate Students

NUS CDTL Lighting Talks , , , , ,

CH’NG Jun-Hong1*, CHAN Chuu Ling1, GOH Lih Ing1, CHONG Hao Kai Nathanael1,
LEE Russell2, and LEE Li Neng2
1Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine
2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
*micchn@nus.edu.sg

 

Ch’ng, J. H., Chan, C. L., Goh, L. I., Chong, N. H. K., Lee, R., Lee, L. N. (2023). Developing a card game to promote interest and awareness of microbiomes among diverse undergraduate students [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/developing-a-card-game-to-promote-interest-and-awareness-of-microbionmes-among-diverse-undergraduate-students/

 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Microbiology, microbiome, card game, interdisciplinary, general education

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

ABSTRACT

Microbes are linked to infections, sickness, and death. Yet, this view is hardly complete: microbes are everywhere, part of everyday life and prerequisites for our own good health and that of our planet’s. Microbes are also recognised as crucial and versatile tools to address the UN Sustainability Development Goals; a microbial Swiss Army knife that ought to be at everyone’s disposal as we tackle some of the world’s most complex problems from pandemics to climate change, food sustainability to environmental pollution.

 

To appreciate the impact of microbes and maximise their utility, learners need make connections with other disciplines, interests, and experiences in everyday life. This needs to happen at both the research and education fronts, with the latter involving the promotion of microbiology beyond the schools of medicine and sciences, to better engage students from all disciplines. This presents many challenges as students may neither have the interest nor confidence to even begin the journey. Consequently, tools that inspire curiosity while empowering self-directed learning are critical to engage learners coming from disparate disciplines.

 

We are in the process of developing a card game that looks commercially produced, is easy to pick up and fun to play, while not requiring any domain knowledge to enjoy and get good at. In this pilot study, 40 undergraduate students, primarily from medicine, life sciences and psychology, were asked to read through the game instructions before giving feedback on the instructions. They then played two rounds of the game, without supervision, before providing feedback on their experience. Feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, was collected using Qualtrics and observations by session facilitators were also recorded. Quantitative feedback was analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data was coded for semi-quantitative analysis or to look for specific constructive suggestions to improve game play/design.

 

The game was well-received across disciplinary backgrounds with positive feedback (5-point scale) on game mechanics being fun (4.17±0.63), attractive artwork (3.83±1.00) and scientific snippets (3.79±1.04), positive re-playability (3.46±0.84), player engagement for non-microbiologists (3.63±1.04), and usefulness of knowledge taught (3.54±1.10). Areas for improvement evidenced from feedback included unclear instructions (2.74±0.98), limited content taught (2.76±0.93), not generating interest to attend formal microbiome classes (2.88±1.17) and not prompting lifestyle changes (1.98±1.11).

 

Data from this pilot study enabled us to further refine the microbiome card game (mechanics, instruction, artwork) and to identify the self-reported learning gains arising from unsupervised gameplay. The latter further led us to develop assessment tools for downstream work to quantify learning gains using pre- and post-play testing.

 

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