SEED projects 2019 – A new Canvas for teaching and learning

Development of pedagogically informed learning resources for pathology teaching using an H5P.com cloud-hosted solution

Dr Rachelle Singleton (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences)

We sought to make our pathology teaching more engaging and our students learning more active, without increasing staff work load. We set out to provide flexible, formative learning opportunities for our students in hybrid/blended models of course delivery, thereby extending the learning environment and ensuring content is more accessible to students outside the classroom, potentially circumventing known barriers to learning related to distance, time and preference.

We did this using H5P (https://h5p.org/) which enabled us to easily create richer HTML 5 content within Canvas. A variety of interactive digital activities were developed to replace existing written assessments. These built on and assessed students’ knowledge prior to and during class e.g. microscopic analysis of histopathology slides and 3D macroscopic specimens with identification of regions of interest (hotspots; roll-over information; animation) and quiz questions in a wide variety of differing formats; fill in the blanks, image and text-based drag and drop, mark the word and interactive video. We also developed assessed tasks that promoted student engagement with and understanding of the wider scientific literature (peer reviewed journal articles).

We successfully increased student engagement, learner participation and excitement about pathology. Seamless integration of these H5P activities with Canvas gradebook provided learners with automatic feedback that was more comprehensive and consistent than previously. Student engagement and achievement was easily tracked for both formative and assessed activities. Assessment results and analytics have informed teachers how to more effectively use their contact teaching time. The new activities have also reduced marking load at peak times during the semester. H5P interfaced with canvas has provided staff with greater flexibility for teaching and encouraged greater learner participation.

Staff and students positively influenced by the initiative:

– 15 academic teaching staff
– 8 graduate teaching assistants
– 250 students stage II and III undergraduate students