Edutainment: Is There a Place for it in Higher Education?

by Anna Kathryn Ward, PharmD, PGY1 Community/Public Health Pharmacy Resident, Mississippi State Department of Health Pharmacy

Whether you are known as a mentor, teacher, preceptor, and/or facilitator, all forms of teaching are moving toward an innovative and creative way of presenting instructional material. “Edutainment”  is growing in popularity, mostly due to the growing number of students that have grown up with ubiquitous technology and entertainment venues. Edutainment is the “presentation of informative or educational material in an entertaining style.”¹ An entertaining style encompasses four different processes known as signaling (e.g., highlighting keywords, changing font color), segmenting (e.g., short videos, short chapters within videos as well as question prompts), weeding (e.g., eliminating extraneous information), and matching modalities (e.g., auditory and visual channels to convey information).² There are many examples of edutainment including the use of short television and movie clips to introduce a concept, the use of board and computer games to learn and/or apply a concept, as entertaining videos that explain topics (e.g., YouTube; Kahn-Academy).

As educators have come to a greater understanding on how people learn and that “one size does not fit all,” edutainment is one potential solution that’s creative and has been used successfully. Edutainment is widely used by preschool and elementary educators, due to popular children’s programming such as Sesame Street that provides educational topics with an entertaining delivery. With new advancements in technology, teachers can now create their own videos and games. The need for a large budget and staff to produce edutainment elements has become unnecessary. But is there a place for edutainment in higher education?

While I am a recent graduate from a professional program, in my current role I now have the responsibility to teach and help millennial students gain knowledge and grow as future pharmacists. This generation seemingly has the expectation, need, and wish to be entertained throughout their learning experiences.³ Because of this expectation, multimedia presentations and the integration of edutainment is gaining momentum and popularity in many college classrooms.³ Strategies, reasoning, and rationales for integrating edutainment elements into the college classroom have received attention in the educational literature in recent years.

One study investigated the use of instructional YouTube videos by faculty to augment instruction in college classes. An online survey was distributed to health and human performance faculty at a southeastern university in the United States. Information about the course levels taught, number of courses taught, and instructional setting (online or in-class) were gathered in the survey. The results showed that slightly more than 40% of the faculty reported the use of YouTube in their courses, with almost all of the participants (>90%) stating an interest in learning how to use of YouTube as a learning resource. The study found that the faculty who use YouTube in their courses consider it to be an effective teaching resource and enhances their course material.³

Another study investigated how online content (e.g., YouTube) could be used as a means to reach today’s students and capture their attention and interest, with the goal of increasing the long-term retention of the course content. The study evaluated 284 college students exposed to two types of videos. The students were introduced to a lesson’s concept either through an emotionally charged video (humorous stimuli) or a neutral video (utilitarian stimuli). Five months later, the students were asked to complete a survey testing their long-term recall of the content. Results indicated that humorous videos shown at the beginning of a class increased the positive mood of students, increasing active learning and attention. Moreover, humorous videos that were congruent with the educational objectives more effectively reinforce the material and significantly increased short and long-term recall when compared to the utilitarian videos.⁴

There has also been research looking at entertaining approaches to training pharmacy preceptors. A training program was developed consisting of 12 online video episodes providing innovative, entertaining, and flexible continuing education programs for pharmacy preceptors. The 12 episodes combine to form a mini-series that form a professionally produced movie. Each episode is five to eight minutes in length and designed to include entertaining elements, practical scenarios, commentary, and teaching pearls. The mini-series follows a pharmacist and student storyline. Participants in the program completed questions and evaluations after each episode, and three months following completion of the training a survey was distributed to analyze their long-term impact on precepting skills. The 202 participants stated significant increases in their confidence level as an educator when comparing the pre- and post-program survey results. Questions about the entertainment value were included on the post-program survey with 99% of the participants indicating they would recommend the program to others and would complete a program of similar format again.⁵

Given the conclusions from these studies, the evidence provides positive reasons for using edutainment in higher education. It can be concluded that teaching with entertaining elements can enhance student attention and results in greater recall of the material. Entertaining materials may also increase curiosity and motivate students to learn more on their own. Simple ways to start incorporating these elements into teaching include using short pre-made videos found on the Internet, using a role-playing game for students to apply the concepts taught, and/or simply changing color and contrast of important information in PowerPoint slides. Teachers can easily adjust the use of these elements throughout their lessons. There is some controversy about how often edutainment elements should be used. Finding the right balance and learning what works to teach certain concepts requires careful consideration. Some topics might work well with videos, where others might work better with in-class games. It’s all about trial and error to find what works best for the teacher and their students. Nonetheless, the use of edutainment in higher education is here to stay and, when used appropriately, will enhance students learning.

References

1. Collins English Dictionary. Definition of ‘edutainment.’ [Cited 2019 Jan 18]
2. Brame CJ. Effective educational videos. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. 2015 [Cited 2019 Jan 18].
3. Burke S, Snyder S, Rager RC. An Assessment of Faculty Usage of YouTube as a Teaching Resource. IJAHSP. 2009;7(1): Article 8.
4. Steffes EM, Duverger P. Edutainment with Videos and its Positive Effect on Long Term Memory. JAME. 2012;20(1):1-10.
5. Cox CD, Cheon J, Crooks SM, Lee J, Curtis JD. Use of Entertainment Elements in an Online Video Mini-Series to Train Pharmacy Preceptors. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017;81(1): Article 12. 

Burnout in Health Professions Education

by Karli Kurwicki, Pharm.D., PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Resident, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Burnout among healthcare students and professionals has been studied for many years. Burnout is typically caused by stress that builds over time and can cause students to have damaging thoughts about themselves, anger, frustration, and even depression. A student experiencing burnout might also develop paranoia and skepticism about their future, and this may lead to distrust in colleagues or mentors. Burnout contributes to poor mental health.

There are three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion; depersonalization and cynicism; and a lost sense of personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion occurs when a student feels indifferent towards the outcome of school work. Students may feel apathy toward studying so they perform poorly on tests and other assignments. Depersonalization and cynicism typically occur after the student has developed emotional exhaustion. Cynicism causes the student to have negative feelings towards school work and their profession. A decreased sense of personal accomplishment causes the student to feel incompetent. These feelings can ultimately lead to depression and impact the student’s emotional well-being. Many healthcare professionals and students feel a stigma with admitting they are depressed because there are negative connotations towards mental illness, even among those who work in the medical field. Students often see depression or anxiety as a weakness.¹

Marshall et al² investigated stress, quality of life, and burnout among pharmacy students attending a US pharmacy school. Third-year pharmacy students filled out a questionnaire that asked about stressors, how the students handle stress, and health-related quality of life over the previous four weeks. Female students had higher perceived levels of stress than males and the mean mental health score was significantly lower for the female students. A majority (56.9%) of the students admitted to feeling nervous or anxious, ranging from fairly often to very often, over the previous four weeks. The investigators also compared perceived stress levels between the graduate students and undergraduate students. The graduate students were significantly more stressed than the undergraduate students. The most common stress trigger for students was not examinations and tests (23.9%) but family and relationships (36.7%). They also asked students to suggest ways the college could help address their stress. The most common recommendation was to move Monday examinations to another day (67.9%) so that they could enjoy their weekends with family and friends. These results remind faculty that school is not the only stressor students face and that to have better learning outcomes and reduce the risk burnout, asking student opinions is important.

A survey of medical students at 7 medical schools across the United States examined the correlation between burnout and suicidal ideation. The authors report that 49.6% of students experienced symptoms of burnout and 11.2% experienced suicidal ideation. Burnout and low mental quality of life were strong predictors of suicide ideation. They also noted that students who recovered from burnout later were less likely to report suicidal ideation.³ This study serves as a good reminder that burnout can be so mentally taxing that it may cause a student to have suicidal thoughts.

Another study done in Portugal compared stress and burnout between students in the first two years of pharmacy school to students in the last two years.⁴ The results of this study are similar to the study done in the United States. Female students were significantly more likely to report emotional exhaustion compared to male students (p=0.017). Students in the last two years of pharmacy school experienced more depersonalization (p=0.006) meaning that they felt less connected to those around them. They found that students with more anxiety and higher personal accomplishment had higher scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Burnout was associated with higher rates of dissatisfaction with school.

Lastly, a study performed in Australia aimed to measure burnout and engagement of nursing, occupational therapy, social work, and psychology students.⁵ The students were sent a survey to fill out. The investigators assessed burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The majority of the students who completed the survey were nursing students (53.5%). They found that burnout increased and engagement decreased as students progressed through the curriculum. However, they did not find a difference in burnout rates among the different health profession students. The authors speculated that improving student resources to help with exhaustion and burnout may be beneficial.

Burnout among students in health profession programs is higher in female students, high achievers, and increases as students progress through the curriculum. Faculty at all health profession schools must consider the negative effects stress has on students. Faculty should be able to recognize signs of burnout and should be prepared to help students by talking about burnout. Providing resources to students so that they can recognize the signs of burnout is a must. Faculty should encourage students to reach out to school counselors, mentors, and faculty if they are experiencing these symptoms, and they should help the students to understand that burnout is something that happens to many students. They should not be ashamed. It is also important to provide mental health counseling to those who are experiencing burnout. Offering free services to help students such as free tutoring could potentially decrease student stress and ultimately burnout. Lastly, schools should perform annual student opinion surveys to try to find ways to help students in terms of mental health and adding more resources to help students.

References

1. Bridgeman PJ, Bridgeman MB, Barone J. Burnout syndrome among healthcare professionals. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2018;75:147-52.
2. Marshall LL, Allison A, Nykamp D, et al. Perceived stress and quality of life among doctor of pharmacy students. Am J Pharm Educ. 2008;72(6): Article 137.
3. Dyrbye LN, Thomas MR, Massie MF, et al. Burnout and suicidal ideation among U.S. medical students. Ann Intern Med. 2008;149(5):334-341.
4. Silva RG, Figueiredo-Braga M. The roles of empathy, attachment style, and burnout in pharmacy student’s academic satisfaction. Am J Pharm Educ. 2018: in press. DOI 10.5688.
5. Robins TG, Roberts RM, Sarris A. Burnout and engagement in health profession students: the relationships between study demands, study resources and personal resources. Australian Journal of Organisational Psychology. 2015;8(e1):1-13.