These slides are from a presentation I gave at the Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education (Paris, July 2016). Interested parties should note this is most definitely *not* a "how to" guide - the talk describes frustrations regarding engagement with "flipped" videos which the students were expected to watch prior to more interactive lecture slots. Some suggestions for how this might be (partially) resolved in the forthcoming academic year are noted.

1. Making Spaces For Cases: Using
lecture capture tools to promote
"flipped learning" in bioethics
6th Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education
Dr Chris Willmott
Dept of Molecular
and Cell Biology
cjrw2@le.ac.uk

2. Overview
• Context: geographical and disciplinary
• Evolution of bioethics teaching
• Case-based learning
• Flipped teaching
• Reflections

3. Context: Leicester
• University of Leicester
School of Biological Sciences
• Second Year Undergraduates
- All Biologists (n ~300)

4. • “Students should expect to be confronted by
some of the scientific, moral and ethical questions
raised by their study subject, to consider
viewpoints other than their own, and to engage in
critical assessment and intellectual argument.
Graduates should be comfortable with dealing
with uncertainty.”
• “Recognise the moral and ethical issues of
investigations and appreciate the need for ethical
standards and professional codes of conduct.”
Context: QAA Benchmark

5. All honours graduates MUST have
“an appreciation of ethical issues and how they
underpin professional integrity and standards”
A typical honours graduate WILL be able to
“construct reasoned arguments to support their
position on the ethical and social impact of
advances in the biosciences”
Context: QAA Benchmark

6. • Multimedia (esp visual media) can be integrated into
teaching about bioethics in variety of ways
Use of broadcast clips
Video production
News analysis
Multimedia in Bioethics Education
Flipped lectures

7. The dreaded Christmas letter…
http://tinyurl.com/xmastreeeffect
“…Deborah got into Harvard aged 11,
…Ralph got a music scholarship
to Eton,
…. Carl was elected President
of the Kindergarten
Debating Society…”

8. Evolution of Yr2 Bioethics
A cautionary tale A work in progress

9. Evolution of Yr2 Bioethics
• BS2060 Research Skills (2004-2014)
- 7 lectures: Introduction to ethics
6 themed – PGD, gene therapy, etc
- Assessment (from 2009) “Headline Bioethics”
Analysis of bioethical news story
25% of module mark
- Bioethics consistently most popular component of
the module
(“stimulated interest” 4.32 out of 5 in 2011-12)

10. Evolution of Yr2 Bioethics
2014 – major overhaul of Yr2 curriculum
• Redesign of delivery and assessment
• Research Skills replaced by Research Topic
• Major assignment – students work in groups to write
research grant proposal
• Consequential changes to bioethics component
- fewer lectures
- loss of Headline Bioethics task
- lecture content altered to fit grant writing task
• Opportunity to introduce some case studies

11. Evolution of Yr2 Bioethics
• BS2000 Research Topic (first time 2014)
- 4 lectures: Introduction
3 instrumentalist (inc practicalities)
- Working with humans
- Working with animals
- Working with GMOs
- Case studies in tutorial (2 hrs)
- Assessment “Research Proposal”
5% of 60% of module (= 3%)

12. Why ethics case studies?
• Case-based teaching reported to offer several
attractions (e.g. Yadav et al, 2007)
Promotes:
- Engagement with topic
- Higher-level skills, e.g. critical thinking
empathy
• Appropriate medium for debate about controversial
issues with legitimate divergence of viewpoint

13. Taxonomy of case-base teaching
(e.g. Herreid, 2011)
• Lecture method: story-telling, students passive
• Discussion methods: e.g. debate, cross-examination
• Small-group methods:
- Problem-based learning +/- literature search
- Progressive disclosure/Interrupted case
• Individual cases:
- Preparing dialogue between rival advocates
- Brief scenario and series of questions
• Computer-simulated cases
• Clicker cases: Interactive response

14. Cases in BS2000
• 8 (semi-)fictional cases prepared for 2 hr tutorial
- Interviews with parents of children with inherited
condition (& control group)
- Clinical trial in developing country
- Research misconduct (fabrication, whistleblowing)
- Human tissue samples
- Dubious source of funding
- Incidental findings
- Synthetic biology
- Animal research
• Students given week to prepare
• Tutors given guidance notes

15. Feedback 2014(a)
• n= 279
• total of 12 out of 116 comments mentioned ethics
• Lectures:
- “I felt that the ethics lectures were the only
valuable lectures in the module”
- “The bioethics lectures were generally relevant
and were interesting”
- “The bioethics lectures were highly interesting”
- “The lectures regarding bioethics and experimental
design were both useful and interesting, I feel
though they could be cut down…”

16. Feedback 2014(b)
• Tutorials: 7 comments - all negative - about tutorial
time being given over to ethics case studies, e.g.
- “we had to waste time answering questions meant
that we had less time as a group to do the
accessed (sic) work”
- “timetabled group sessions are lost with exams/
ethical scenario exercises”
- “…this wasted time that could have been devoted
to our actual research project”
- “…these small tasks added greater time pressure on
completing the main aim of the Research module”

17. Conclusions from 1st iteration
• Lectures generally well received (if mentioned)
• Some students unhappy with group discussion time
being “wasted” on bioethics scenarios
• Some staff uncomfortable with ethics teaching

18. Redesign 2015
• Pre-record lectures (using new lecture capture
software) and release online
- free up tutorial slots
- move case studies to “lecture slot”
• Introductory lecture retained
• Other lectures (working with humans, animals and
GMOs) delivered as series of shorter videos via VLE
• Case studies in lectures 2&3
(4th lecture dropped)

19. Flipped lectures
• e.g. Research involving humans
• 5 lectures – 57 mins total

20. Flipped lectures

21. Lectures (n=311)
Live lectures & Case discussions also recorded
• Lecture 1: Introduction
(1 pm, 26/10/15) – 124 (40%) absent
video watched by 20, only 11 for >15 mins
• Lecture 2: Cases pt1
(5 pm, 27/10/15) – 141 (45%) absent
video watched by 11, only 4 for >15 mins
• Lecture 3: Cases pt2
(1 pm, 02/11/15) – 121 (39%) absent
video watched by 9, only 4 for >15 mins

22. Flipped lectures (n=311)
Research involving
human subjects
Duration Watched
any
Watched
>50%
1: Misconduct 8:34 70 (23%) 58
2: Codes of conduct 7:24 52 (17%) 41
3: UK legislation 23:53 43 (14%) 27
4: Local procedures 11:06 37 (12%) 28
5: Principlism 6:20 28 (9%) 26
• e.g. Research involving human subjects

23. Feedback 2015(a)
• n = 311
• questionnaire format STOP – START – CONTINUE
• total of 23 comments re ethics
• Lectures:
- “I found the ethics lectures very interesting”
- “Ethics lectures really helped when writing the
research proposal”
- “[Continue] bioethics lectures as they are really
interesting and can be useful in the future”
- “The case study lectures were really interesting”

24. Feedback 2015(b)
• Lectures:
- “Ethics lectures still seemed rather pointless as
they did not (and could not really) relate to our
particular topic”
- “They were interesting but as they didn’t count
they were not a priority”
- “Less time spent on ethics didn’t reflect marks for
it on project”
- “The bioethics lectures could be cut shorter”
- “Sort out the bioethics lectures properly”

25. Feedback 2015(c)
• Tutorials, etc:
-“[Start] doing bioethics in the tutorial groups”
- “[Start] having tutorial sessions where you put
some of what you learn in lectures into practice,
for example, ethical committees”
- “Maybe introduce an ethics exam”
- “The extra information for the ethics was very well
coordinated”
- “[Stop] having so many lectures/powerpoints on
just ethics of human clinical trials”

26. Interim conclusions
• Panopto is excellent tool for preparing flipped
lectures
• But… pre-recording lectures is time consuming
(the first time through) – planning script, recording,
re-recording and editing
• You can’t please everyone all of the time
• Assessment “carrot” still main driver of student
engagement

27. Changes for 2016
• Alter scheduling?
2015: Intro – Cases 1 – gap – Cases 2
2016: Intro – gap – Cases 1 – Cases 2
• Increase weighting for ethics component of
Research Proposal assignment?
• Trial use of BYOD voting technology?
• Require viewing of flipped videos?
(How? Formative MCQs?)
• Suggestions welcomed!

28. Any Questions?
E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Twitter: cjrw
Slideshare: cjrw2
Delicious: chriswillmott
Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
www.biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com