Tunes in the Zoom Room: Remote Learning via Videoconference Discussions of Physiology Songs

Abstract

As most instruction has been forced online, biology instructors have become acutely aware of the many advantages and limitations of online teaching. Here, we investigate one possible advantage of online education: the ease of allowing remote guest speakers to interact with students in real time. In particular, we piloted a model in which guest speakers could facilitate direct music-related interactions with students, possibly benefiting students' content knowledge and sense of community. In the context of an undergraduate animal physiology course, face-to-face lessons on arterial blood gases and the renal system were supplemented with videoconferences with a guest speaker who presented relevant content-rich songs and led class discussions of the lyrics. Survey and test data suggested that, after each of the lessons, the students (i) had increased confidence in their understanding of the material, (ii) performed better on objective test questions, and (iii) attributed their learning chiefly to the musical intervention. While our approach awaits further exploration and testing, this report provides preliminary evidence of its feasibility and offers practical suggestions for others who may wish to give it a try.

FIGURE 1

An example of using a song (“Henle’s Water Music”; tinyurl.com/henle-song) as a springboard to discussing biology content. Each discussion question was assigned a level of Bloom’s taxonomy as described by Crowe et al. (25).

FIGURE 2

Students’ content knowledge improved after musical videoconferences on blood gases (N = 9) and the renal system (N = 8), and students primarily attributed their learning gains to these videoconferences. (Top panel) Students’ performance on objective multiple-choice questions improved following videoconferences. Values shown are means ± SEM; double asterisks denote statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) between pre-test and post-test scores. (Bottom panel) Students’ responses to the question, “Which of the following helped you understand [topic of the day]?” Students could choose any number of the six options. Activities denoted with an asterisk were assigned prior to the class meeting; the remaining activities were performed as a group during class time. No students found reading the chapter helpful for the renal system lesson.