Orienting Students To Important Features Of Ecg Cycle And Measurement

A one-credit freshmen level biomedical engineering course is offered each fall semester to new students to teach them how the ECG is measured and what biological factors influence the characteristics of these signals. Several of the primary learning objectives included evaluating anomalies in ECG traces, computationally evaluating the normal ECG, and defining and explaining various anatomical and medical terms. The popularity of the course has grown requiring the formation of two sections taught by two different instructors in the Fall of 2002. The seminars were taught using two different instruction models: 'traditional' and 'challenge-based' instruction. The same instructor as prior years taught the first section using the same 'traditional' approach to instruction and course notes used in prior years. The instructional model focused primarily on class demonstrations, lectures and short follow-up homework assignments. A new instructor reorganized the course outline around a series of challenge-based modules originally designed for a high school senior physics course. This series of challenges is designed to engage students in a process of inquiry that helps them notice and differentiate various aspects of the ECG cycle. In the fall semester of 2002, students in these two sections completed a pretest and posttest measuring their ability to define various terms and explain various aspects of ECG traces. Classroom observations were made to identify differences in classroom dynamics and students motivation. A final exit survey was used to measure students' perceptions of the effectiveness of each instructional method. This paper will present the results from the students' responses to these two instructional approaches.