Slides from a presentation given to the Biological Sciences Scholarship of Teaching and Learning group at the University of Leicester (November 2018). The talk gave a step-by-step reflection on the evolution of bioethics teaching via a combination of online videos and face-to-face discussion of case studies. As noted, aspect of the process remain problematic.

1. Not so flippin’ easy: Adventures in
"flipped teaching" in the biosciences
BS-SOTL group (November 2018)
Dr Chris Willmott
Dept of Molecular
and Cell Biology
cjrw2@le.ac.uk

2. Overview
• What is “flipped teaching”?
• Context: Bioethics in Yr 2
• Why have I adopted a “flipped” approach?
• What advice do I have for anyone considering
adopting a flipped model?
• Reflections of turning teaching interventions into
(publishable) Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

3. Terminology

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. Multimedia in Bioethics Education
Flipped lectures

8. 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…”

9. Evolution ofYr2 Bioethics
A cautionary tale A work in progress

10. Evolution ofYr2 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)

11. Evolution ofYr2 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

12. Evolution ofYr2 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%)

13. 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

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 in 2016
• Altered scheduling
2015: Intro – Cases 1 – gap – Cases 2
2016: Intro – gap – Cases 1 – Cases 2
• Doubled weighting for ethics component of
Research Proposal assignment (10% of 60% = 6%)
With increase from 500 to 1000 words.
• Blackboard quiz (formative) to encourage viewing of
flipped videos

28. Feedback in 2016 (Students)
• Open text question in formative quiz
• Emerging themes:
- duration v number
- sound quality
- time commitment & priorities
- additional formats

29. Feedback in 2016 (Students)
Duration v Number of Videos
• “I found it helpful that there were lots of short
videos rather than fewer longer ones”
• “It would have been better if there had been fewer
videos to watch”
• “It would have been easier to have all the videos for
each topic (Human, Animal and GM) in one video”

30. Feedback in 2016 (Students)
Duration v Number of Videos
• “I watched most of the videos but some I left
playing while I was tidying my room so I could still
listen but also use the time for other things! 14 was
quite a few though, longer than an hour so >1
lecture”

31. Feedback in 2016 (Staff)
• It was noted that students had watched fewer
videos (using Panopto data) than they claimed (in
the formative quiz)
• Academic staff felt the increase 500 to 1000 words
for ethics component had led to more waffle not
valuable content

32. Changes in 2017
• Ethics component kept at 6% of mark, but format
altered to be in style of ethics application form
• Additional video to explain the ethics form
• Several videos altered:
- 2 videos (Humans 1 and Humans 2) re-recorded to
remove irritating buzz, 1 intentionally left unaltered
- Music track added to two videos
(Animals 5 and GMO 3)

33. Summary so far…
• Bioethics in core Research Topic module for all
Yr 2 Bioscientists. Team-based assessment involves
students completing grant proposal, including
ethics form
• QAA benchmarking statements include expectation
that all students have basic understanding of
bioethics issues
• By 2017 there are total of 15 online videos
(duration 3:30 to 23:30 mins)
replacing 3 previous F2F lectures
• Formative online quiz

34. Not so flipping easy?
What factors influence engagement?

35. Insights from focus group (1)
Delegation
“One of the ways my group had decided to organise
was just one girl was tackling the bioethics section of
the write up so in that sense I think the rest of us
kind of switched off from it because we were like oh
OK she’s doing it” (Student B, Biological Sciences)
“That’s what happened with our group as well. So
when we felt like we didn’t, it was necessarily relevant
we could focus on other areas and as interesting as it
was in terms of prioritising time I guess it did not
become my priority to watch all the videos” (Student
C, Medical Biochemistry)

36. Insights from focus group (2)
Selectivity
“I mean and in all honesty like, it was really
interesting but ours was just using mice, so none of
the human stuff… half of it was not relevant”
(Student D, Medical Biochemistry)
“Yeah ours was using mice as well so half of it was
not even… [interrupted]” (Student B, Biological
Sciences)

37. Insights from focus group (3)
Overwhelmed
“I think one thing that personally deterred me from
was just seeing the number 14, I’m just being honest,
as soon as I saw 14 videos I was a bit like ‘ooh, don’t
have time don’t have time’. I think I found it a little bit
overwhelming to have that much in one folder it’s like
‘it’s waiting for me to watch this’” (Student C, Medical
Biochemistry)
“I think it is good to know it all there’s but… there
were a lot” (Student B, Biological Sciences)

38. Insights from focus group (4)
Duration
“I think 5 minutes is good. Not too long that you’re
like ‘no I’m not watching that’ so it is fun but the
number of them was a bit over” (Student B, Biological
Sciences)
“Yeah. Our attention span is now 10 minutes isn’t it?
So you’ve got to get under ten minutes – as soon as
you see those double digits your mind just goes
‘nah’… As soon as you get into 10, 15 minutes you’re
just like ‘nah’” (Student D, Medical Biochemistry)

39. Insights from focus group (5)
Delivery
“Make a YouTube channel with them on” (Student D,
Medical Biochemistry)
“Yeah stick it on the YouTube channel and I’d watch it
that way, definitely” (Student A, Biological Sciences)
“I haven’t looked [on my phone] but I wouldn’t be
bothered to login to Blackboard… Like a YouTube app,
5 minutes to click on a subscribe to channel it could
be his channel” (Student A, Biological Sciences)

40. Insights from focus group (6)
Case studies
“Didn’t he do a lot of scenarios and things they were
quite interesting” (Student A, Biological Sciences)
“Yeah I really enjoyed those… coz they really made us
think, like I really… like sometimes I switch off but
with those ones we had to think about them”
(Student C, Medical Biochemistry)
“He did… they were really good” (Student D, Medical
Biochemistry)
“Although the lecture was just scenarios it was kind of
‘when will this end?’… Spread them out a bit more”
(Student A, Biological Sciences)

41. Insights from focus group (7a)
Quiz to promote video viewing?
“I really enjoyed the bioethics. I can’t say I watched
the videos… I wish I had done I just didn’t get around
to it. I kept meaning to, I just didn’t have the time, so
I just did the quiz, answered it with common sense
answers and minor googling. I wish I’d sat and
watched them, because they did look interesting I
just didn’t get around to it” (Student A, Biological
Sciences)
“I just read the questions and then skipped to the bit
in the video that I was… I watched the first few and
then I was a bit tight for time” (Student B, Biological
Sciences)

42. Insights from focus group (7b)
Quiz to promote video viewing?
“I think it encouraged some people to watch it I’d
imagine because you think ‘oh I’ve got to answer the
quiz’, but once you open up the quiz and have a look
at it you think ‘I can answer these without watching
the videos quite easily’” (Student A)
“Yeah, it was a good idea but it’s easy to kind of avoid
watching the videos, and I think a lot of people I
spoke to were just like ‘I did the quiz because they
told us to do the quiz’ so they didn’t pay attention to
any of the videos they just googled something”
(Student B)

43. Insights from focus group (8)
Discrepancy re videos viewed
“I was like ‘they’re not going to believe me’, even if I
do put ‘I watched all of them’ because they’ll
probably just think I’m lying so it doesn’t work!”
(Student D, Medical Biochemistry)
“I think I put midway because it was true and I was
like they’ll also kind of believe that, probably more
than saying ‘oh yeah I’ve watched all of them’”
(Student B, Biological Sciences)
“I think I put all of them because I could feel the
disapproving gaze of Willmott” (Student A, Biological
Sciences)

44. Conclusions (thus far)
• Limited engagement (despite refinements) is
disappointing
• Students are strategic
- intention that 100% would watch all videos
- reality = allocated roles within team
= only watched videos re their topic
• Students are motivated by assessments
- only engaged with “relevant” videos
- saw formative quiz as focus rather than aid
• Expectation management
- Advice on how to make most of videos

45. Considerations for flipped teaching
• Incentivisation? Scheduling?
• Fewer, longer videos v More, shorter videos?
• Additional resources (e.g. transcripts)?
• Delivery? Regular release v Glut?
(stagger release over time, even if ready)
• Sound quality and format
- animation?
- on screen appearance?
• Panopto to prepare, but deliver via YouTube?

46. Gathering evidence for review
(and publication?)
• Regular teaching can generate various types of
evidence:
- module review forms
- Panopto usage data
- additional open text question
- module performance
• Inclusion of a focus group (however small) adds
insight into student thinking

47. Acknowledgements
• Matt Mobbs
• Gemma Mitchell
• Alan Cann
• David Bridgwood
• University Teaching Excellence Project Fund

48. E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Twitter: cjrw
Slideshare: cjrw2
Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
www.biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com
Thank you
Any questions?

49. References
Herreid C.F. (2011) Case Study Teaching New Directions For Teaching and
Learning 126:31-40
Willmott C. (2013) Headline Bioethics: Engagement with bioethics in the news
Bioscience Education 21:3-6
Willmott C. (2014) Boxing Clever: Television as a teaching tool Times Higher
Education (28th August 2014)
Willmott C.J.R. (2015) Teaching Bioethics via the Production of Student-
generated Videos Journal of Biological Education 49:127-138
Yadav A. et al (2007) Teaching Science with Case Studies: A national survey of
faculty perceptions of the benefits and challenges of using cases Journal of
College Science Teaching 37:34-38