Thomas M. Nosek, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Case Western Reserve University

In this final article of the series, the discussion comes to a completion with the remaining aspects that show the results of the tools that were presented in part I and the implementation techniques in pat II.

17. Administer weekly quizzes.
We administer a 10 multiple choice question, computer-based quiz to both resident and Internet students (using the testing function in the CMS) every Monday before class that covers the material from the previous week’s lectures. Grades on these quizzes constitute 15% of the final grade in the course. The intent of the quizzes and their 15% contribution to the final course grade is to encourage students to keep up with the course material.

Advantages: The courses move along very quickly and if a student gets behind studying the material, they are at a severe disadvantage – there typically is not enough time for the students to catch up. Once a student’s answers are submitted, their grade is immediately reported so the students have immediate feedback on their performance.
Disadvantages: Faculty must write these quiz questions and time must be taken to administer the quizzes. Staff must be available to help students who have problems with the software on the day of the quiz. It is inevitable that a few students will have problems with their computers. Thus, the department has purchased 10 computers dedicated for use by students having difficulty during the quiz/exam administration. A room or group of rooms with Internet service and power sources for computer chargers must be available for the administration of quizzes and exams.


18. Provide weekly Study (Homework) Questions.
At the beginning of each week, we provide approximately 10 multiple choice study questions for each chapter in the assigned textbook that is covered that week. Students are encouraged to work together on these questions; they are free to use the textbook, class notes, and any other learning resource. However, the students are on their honor to enter their own answers to the question in the testing function of the CMS by noon each Saturday. Immediately after the due date for the questions, the answers with detailed explanations are provided to the students. Grades on these Study Questions constitute 15% of the final grade in the course.

Advantages: We have found that students who read the textbook do better than students who do not. These study questions encourage students to read the textbook. They key the students in on the most important points in each chapter helping them prepare for quizzes and exams. This learning resource has been rated very highly by the students.
Disadvantages: These study questions are created each year by the TA’s. Unfortunately, the TA’s are not always experienced in writing questions and many questions must be corrected after they are posted. It is best if these questions are written by faculty or at least reviewed by them before the questions are released to the students.

19. Administer computer-based Block examinations.
The textbook we use is organized by organ systems. The course is divided into Blocks by these organ systems. A faculty member is assigned to coordinate each Block. This faculty member is responsible for soliciting quiz and Block exam questions from each of the faculty members lecturing during the Block. At the end of each Block, a computer-based multiple-choice examination is administered through “Exemplify/ExamSoft” which we purchase for each of the students. The Block exam average constitutes 70% of the final course grade. These exams are secure so that they can be used from year to year with only slight modifications to better word questions that are found to be confusing and to modify them to accommodate for different faculty teaching the material.

Advantages: Blocks are typically 4 weeks long and there are 4 Blocks/semester. This breaks up the semester into 4 parts and gives the students 4 opportunities/semester to demonstrate their knowledge of the material. The computer-based exam system gives them immediate feedback on their performance.
Disadvantages: As noted above for quizzes, staff must be available to help students who have problems with the exam software on the day of the exam. As noted above, it is inevitable that a few students will have problems with their computers. Thus, the department has purchased 10 computers dedicated for use by students having difficulty during the exam administration. A room or group of rooms with Internet service and power sources for computer chargers must be available for the administration of Block exams. For the Internet students who cannot come to Cleveland to take the Block exams, we administer the exams through ProctorU, a service paid for by the department. This service uses the CMS to administer the exam through their proprietary software where a proctor observes the students through their computer camera and reports any inappropriate activity.


20. Use a “Difficulty Factor” (DF) to adjust quiz and Block exam grades for difficulty.
It is very difficult to predict how well students will perform on multiple choice quizzes and Block exams. Our expectation is that the median score on each Block exam will be 85% with 100% – 85% = A, 84% – 70% = B, and anything less than 70=C (with a C considered a failing performance in graduate school). Until a track record can be established for an exam, performance on each exam will be used to calculate the DF = the difference between the median on an exam and 85%. For example, if the median on an exam is 80%, 5% points are added to each student’s grade to bring the class median to 85%. If the median on an exam is greater than 85%, the DF = 0. After 3 years of administering a secure exam, the DF is calculated from the average of the DF’s for the previous 3 years.

Advantages: This system of adjusting the Block exam grades has been effective in making the final class average in the course close to 85% and a distribution of grades approximately 50% A’s and 50% B’s with only a few C’s. The students see the grading system as non-competitive; i.e., they do not see themselves as being in competition with other students for a limited number of A’s. Although it has never happened, it is possible for all students to earn an A in the course.
Disadvantages: None


21. As soon as possible after quizzes and Block exams are completed, hold a review session to discuss the correct questions.
Review sessions are conducted by the TA’s immediately after the class that follows the administration of the Monday quizzes and immediately after the Block exams. In these review sessions, the right answers to each question are provided. Students are allowed to contest the answer to a question. All contested questions of substance are taken to the faculty member responsible for the quiz or Block exam for evaluation and possibly changing the right answer or accepting multiple right answers. When this happens, the question is immediately corrected for use on the next year’s quiz/exam.

Advantages: It is very useful for students to have immediate (or near immediate) feedback on their performance on quizzes and Block exams. In this way they can identify concepts that they have not mastered and correct their thinking before moving on to the next topic.
Disadvantages: Steps must be taken to keep quiz and Block exam questions secure during these review sessions.

22. Provide faculty advisors to the MSMP students.
Each of the MSMP students is assigned a faculty advisor from the primary and secondary departmental faculty. We limit the number of students assigned to each faculty member to no more than 10/year. The advisors are responsible for writing letters of recommendation for their advisees. Students are encouraged to meet personally with their advisor at the beginning of the program and then at least after each Block exam in the first year core courses. During the second year, they meet with their advisors as needed. Internet students are encouraged to contact their advisor via phone or Skype on the same schedule.

Advantages: Students have access to a faculty member who can advise them on how to best navigate the courses and the MSMP program. Based on the student’s unique situation, they can also advise them on which electives will be most helpful to them when they apply to a medical professional program. Personal meetings are important so that the advisor can write a personalized letter of recommendation.
Disadvantages: Advisors are not equally knowledgeable about the intricacies of getting into professional medical programs and don’t provide the same quality of advice. Students tend to seek advice from the faculty members who have the reputation of being the best advisors, even when they are not assigned to that advisor. It is difficult to recruit enough faculty to be advisors to keep the student/advisor ratio at 10/incoming class.


23. Provide peer advisors.
At the beginning of the academic year, each matriculating MSMP student is assigned a peer advisor from the second year MSMP students. They are encouraged to meet and have social activities together. Each peer advisor is given $10/advisee to defray the cost of a social activity; ex. pizza party, bowling party, etc.

Advantages: Students appreciate meeting second year MSMP students who have successfully completed the first year core courses. Especially at the beginning of the program, this contact helps the incoming students become acclimatized to CWRU, the MSMP program, and Cleveland.
Disadvantages: It is not always easy to recruit enough 2nd year MSMP students to keep the student/advisor ratio at approximately 5.

24. Provide Teaching Assistants who have already had the core courses.
At the end of the academic year, we interview students who have successfully completed their first year in the program and who want to be Teaching Assistants (TA’s). Typically, these students have a perfect 4.0 GPA and have had some TA experience during their undergraduate experiences. The TA’s conduct weekly review sessions for the core courses, hold office hours for personalized Question and Answer sessions, administer the quizzes and Block exams, and post the materials provided by faculty in the CMS. Three of the nine TA’s have been assigned to work exclusively with the Internet students, being sure to contact them at least once/week.

Advantages: The TA’s provide an invaluable service to the MSMP program, relieving the AA and faculty from having to deal with many routine administrative duties. This experience is very valuable to the TA’s, greatly enhancing their resumes. This position pays $15/hour for up to 20 hours/week of work thus giving the second year students some income. These TA positions have become very prestigious, especially when considering that every TA has gained admittance to the medical professional program of their choice after graduating with the MSMP degree.
Disadvantages: We hire 9 TA’s/year and this comes with a price tag that must be met by the income generated by the program.


25. Require students to complete a faculty/course/program evaluation at the end of each Block of the course.
At the end of each Block exam in the core courses and at the end of each elective, each student is required to complete a Block/faculty/program evaluation administered through SurveyMonkey. Student grades are not released until they complete all surveys. The Director of the MSMP program creates the template for this survey and the TA’s appropriately modify it and post it online for each Block of the courses.

Advantages: This feedback is provided to the Block coordinators, the MSMP Administration Committee members, the faculty teaching in the Block, and the TA’s. This feedback is coordinated by the AA. The Block coordinator and the members of the MSMP Administration Committee see the full evaluations. The faculty and TA’s only see their own evaluations. This information is very important for faculty and TA’s to know how their interactions are valued by the students and by the Block coordinators and MSMP Administration Committee members to evaluate the courses and program and take steps to continuously improve it.
Disadvantages: The AA must take time to keep track of students who have completed the evaluations and explain to those students who have not completed them why their course grade has not been posted.

Dr. Nosek earned his B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from The Ohio State University in 1973.  After post-doctoral research in the Cardiovascular Physiology Training Program in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, he went to the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia (1976-1997) where he was the Coordinator of the Muscle Cell Biology Research Group (conducting research on the cellular basis of muscle fatigue) and the Coordinator of the Computer Aided Instruction Research Group (editing and being a section author of “Essentials of Human Physiology:  A Multimedia Resource” published by the DxR Group).  He served as Director of the medical physiology course taught to first year medical students and was the Director of the Departments Ph.D. program.  In 1997, he moved to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine where he was Associate Dean of Biomedical Information Technologies (creating the Computer-Based Integrated Curriculum through 2006) and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics until he retired in 2014 becoming Professor Emeritus.  He served as the department’s Director of Medical Education.  He was founding Director of the MS in Medical Physiology Program at CWRU from 2010 – 2019 when he became Director Emeritus.

Thomas M. Nosek, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Case Western Reserve University

In last week’s article, 9 aspects were discussed on what to bring to a classroom for the methods of effective teaching of physiology.

10. Encourage all faculty to use PowerPoint presentations during class
These files are made available to the class in the CMS at least a day before each lecture. Sometimes faculty modify these files right before the lecture is given. Therefore, we provide both a pre- and post-lecture PowerPoint presentation in the CMS.

Advantages: Students report that they like PowerPoint presentations. Many will review this file before lecture and take notes on their computers in the pre-lecture PowerPoint during lecture. Faculty have become very creative using the advanced features of PowerPoint, linking to video files, sound files, animations, etc.
Disadvantages: Faculty must create the PowerPoint file for uploading into the CMS at least a few days before the scheduled class. Some students report that they find the presentation of one PowerPoint after another to be monotonous.


11. Encourage all faculty to use computer/Internet-based simulations, sound files, videos, and animations during class.
There are extensive physiological simulations/animations/sound files/videos available on the Internet. We encourage faculty to use these whenever they think they enhance the learning experience. For example, when teaching the nerve action potential, we use a Hodgkin and Huxley nerve simulation computer program. We give students in small groups a series of questions to answer using the simulation. Another example is during the muscle physiology lectures; an animation of action potential conduction along the muscle fiber and into the t-tubules upon activation of the neuromuscular junction is presented and discussed in class along with an animation of the cross-bridge cycle.

Advantages: Active learning is always better for retention than passive learning. When students use computer simulations to answer a set of questions they engage the material to a greater extent and have a deeper understanding of the physiological principles. Viewing animations also helps students to understand difficult concepts. Students rate the use of these learning resources very favorably.
Disadvantages: Students are all required to own a personal notebook computer. They will often have problems installing computer simulations and animations on their personal computers. Thus, a staff member must be available to assist them so that they have access to these learning resources.


12. Provide Learning Objectives for each lecture in the CMS.
A Learning Objective (LO) is a statement of what a student is expected to be able to DO after they have heard a lecture. It is not a statement of what the lecturer presented. For example, “Know the cross-bridge cycle” is not a valid LO. “Be able to draw from memory the 6 stages of the cross-bridge cycle for a typical skeletal muscle” is a valid LO.

Advantages: The students will know exactly what they are supposed to be able to DO after they hear a lecture. We have a policy that no quiz or Block exam question can be asked unless it links to one of the provided LO’s.
Disadvantages: The faculty giving the lecture must create these LO’s for their lectures and make them available to the students far enough ahead of the lecture to be useful. It is not always easy for faculty to write specific LO’s, LO’s that are not too general and therefore useless.

13. Live stream each lecture and record it for posting in the CMS
We are provided a staff member from the university’s Teaching & Learning Support division to be present at all lectures and review sessions to live stream and record each lecture using Echo 360. The recording is posted in the CMS as soon after the lecture as possible. Because the videos must be processed to some extent before they can be posted, this cannot be immediate. Two hours after the lecture is a reasonable time to have these posted online.

Advantages: This year, 26% of the class is taking the MSMP program over the Internet. Only a small percentage of these students are able to view the lectures live and they rely on the recordings to access the material. It is interesting to note that attendance at the live lectures falls off the further into the two semesters of core courses one gets. At times, as much as 50% of the resident students opt to skip class and view the lectures online. Feedback from the students indicates that they do this for many different reasons. Foul winter weather in Cleveland is often cited. However, many students indicate they find it to be a great advantage to be able to speed up the lecture (up to 2x normal speed is available) when a faculty member is lecturing slowly over something they find easy to understand. On the other hand, if they don’t understand something that the professor says in class, they have the option of stopping the video and replaying it and even looking the material up in the textbook so that they will understand what has been presented before they move on with the next aspect of the lecture. Also, students with learning disabilities requiring accommodations report that they are often unable to focus their attention for a 2-hour lecture. Being able to stop the lecture to take a break before refocusing on the material prevents them from wasting time in a lecture setting where they report being totally overwhelmed and lost.
Disadvantages: This resource encourages students to skip the live lectures. Faculty often complain about low student attendance at their presentations. However, there is no evidence that student performance is compromised when they view videos of a lecture rather than physically attending it. Because of the dependence of students on this resource, we have trained all of the Teaching Assistants to back up the staff member charged with making the recordings.


14. Use an audience response system (ARS) during lecture.
We use TurningPoint as our ARS. It seamlessly integrates with PowerPoint. Each student is given a “clicker” at the beginning of the year after making a deposit in the amount of the cost of the clicker. This deposit is refunded when the clicker is returned at the end of the academic year. Faculty are encouraged to stop the lecture approximately every 15 minutes (approximately the length of time a student can effectively concentrate on lecture material) and present a question to the class in PowerPoint. Students are given a few minutes to reflect on the question before they are asked to register their answer to the question via their clicker. The number of students responding is observed on the PowerPoint slide. When a plateau is reached in the number of students responding, the faculty advances the slide to show the right answer to the question. If the class overwhelmingly answers the question correctly, no further discussion is necessary although the faculty member may want to go through each answer and explain why it is right or wrong. However, if less than 50% of the class answers the question correctly, the ARS will have helped the faculty identify a concept that has not been well understood by a majority of the students. This is an opportunity for the faculty not to progress to the answer slide but to further discuss the material. The system allows for revisiting a question, having the students to answer the question a second time after further discussion of the topic. If the students’ answers are split evenly among a number of choices, faculty are encouraged to use the “Peer Instruction” technique discussed below.

Advantages: Many years ago, we tested the effectiveness of an ARS on medical students at CWRU and found that student performance on a standard exam was enhanced by as much as 10% with the use of an ARS. Student feedback from MSMP students indicate that they very much appreciate the use of the ARS. Online students who watch the lectures live are encouraged to register their answers to ARS questions in the streaming software. A TA is always available during class to answer questions from the Internet students or to ask the lecturer questions on behalf of an Internet student. Online students who are watching the lectures asynchronously are encouraged to write down their answers on a piece of paper while they are watching the lecture.
Disadvantages: Students do not always remember to bring their clickers to class. The number of students responding to ARS questions is never equal to the total number of students in attendance. Faculty must create the ARS questions and incorporate them into their lectures. Some faculty do not feel comfortable doing this or just refuse to cooperate even with strong coaxing. TA’s have offered to help faculty create these questions with limited success.

15. Utilize “Peer Instruction”
“Peer Instruction” has been popularized by Eric Mazur at Harvard University (Miller et al., 2015 – https://journals.aps.org/prper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.010104). When an instructor identifies a topic that the students do not clearly understand (often prompted by the use of an ARS question that generates an ambiguous set of answers), the professor directs the students to gather in small groups of 3-4 where they are sitting in a large or small class setting and discuss among themselves the question. We have used this technique effectively in a large classroom setting with up to 150 students.

Advantages: The hypothesis is that one of the students in the small group will know the answer to the question and will be able to teach their peers the concept even more effectively than the professor. Mazur has reported positive results in students’ comprehension using this technique. Using this technique has the advantage of breaking up the flow of the class and invigorating the students as it actively engages them in the learning process. Our students have rated the use of this technique very favorably.
Disadvantages: Using this technique does take up class time and can disrupt the flow of the lecture. Not all students are willing to actively engage in this process and would prefer a passive learning experience.

16. Use the “Flipped Classroom” technique.
By a “Flipped Classroom” I mean providing students with pre-recorded lectures or other learning resources in the CMS that they are required to view/use before class. Class time is reserved for using the ARS to ask students questions over important aspects of the physiology presented in the pre-recorded lecture or in the other supplied learning resource – no lecture is given.

Advantages: The majority of students indicate that they enjoy the “Flipped Classroom” and that the use of ARS questions during the class time helps them to learn the material.
Disadvantages: Faculty must take the time to record this specialized lecture, often without an audience. Only approximately 70% of the students attending a “Flipped” class will have reviewed the assigned material before class. Because there is no lecture, they are not prepared to actively learn from the ARS questions. Some students complain that the required viewing of material before class is an added study time burden from which they do not see a clear benefit.

In the final week of the series, aspects that have been shown to provide a return of investment in the classroom will be discussed.  

Dr. Nosek earned his B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from The Ohio State University in 1973.  After post-doctoral research in the Cardiovascular Physiology Training Program in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, he went to the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia (1976-1997) where he was the Coordinator of the Muscle Cell Biology Research Group (conducting research on the cellular basis of muscle fatigue) and the Coordinator of the Computer Aided Instruction Research Group (editing and being a section author of “Essentials of Human Physiology:  A Multimedia Resource” published by the DxR Group).  He served as Director of the medical physiology course taught to first year medical students and was the Director of the Departments Ph.D. program.  In 1997, he moved to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine where he was Associate Dean of Biomedical Information Technologies (creating the Computer-Based Integrated Curriculum through 2006) and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics until he retired in 2014 becoming Professor Emeritus.  He served as the department’s Director of Medical Education.  He was founding Director of the MS in Medical Physiology Program at CWRU from 2010 – 2019 when he became Director Emeritus.

Thomas M. Nosek, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Case Western Reserve University

I have been actively involved in graduate and medical student education since 1972 – 47 years.  From my first time before the students, I have been searching for the optimal way to engage the students during class time, to provide alternatives to standard lectures, and to encourage active learning – all with the desire to help them understand physiological principles.

Over the years, I have had experience directing the Medical Physiology course team-taught to first year medical students and directing departmental MS and PhD programs.  Since 2011, I have served as the Program Director of a 32-credit hour MS in Medical Physiology program at Case Western Reserve University – a program designed to aid students gain admittance to professional medical programs; MD, DO, POD, DDS, PA, and PhD. It is classified as a Special Post-Baccalaureate program.  The program consists of 20 credit hours of lecture-based core Physiology courses (Medical Physiology I and II, Translational Physiology I and II, and Physiology Seminar I and II) which are designed to be taken in the first year of study to establish a strong understanding of physiological principles.  Twelve credit hours of graduate level electives, preferably taken in the second year of the program in any department at the university, round out the 32 credit hour degree requirement.  The program has grown from 43 students in the first class to 175 this past year, 45 of whom are taking the program over the Internet.  My responsibilities as director of this program and serving as the course director for the core courses have allowed me to test many of my ideas to optimize student learning of physiology, gaining feedback from the students along the way via surveys.

In this series of articles, I will introduce and discuss each of the aspects of the courses/program that I hope my colleagues will find useful as they consider how they may construct or modify the physiology courses/program for which they are responsible.  I will also present the advantages and disadvantages of each of these features.  I prefer to create hyperlinked text so that you can access detailed information only when you want it.  In lieu of that here, I suggest you read the bolded headers below and only read the detailed text that follows if this topic is of interest to you.

1. Have an Administration Committee to help administer the courses/program.
We have a 7 faculty member Administration Committee constituted from our primary and secondary faculty which I chair that established the program and now administers it, conducting constant quality assessments. Members of the committee help to recruit faculty from across the university to present lectures and continue to fill vacancies when they arise.

Advantages: The faculty have a wealth of experience and wisdom that cannot be matched by one person alone trying to administer a course or program. The committee reviews the student evaluations and recommends changes to improve the quality of the course/program.
Disadvantages: Faculty are not always available to meet on a monthly basis to keep a close eye on the courses and the program.


2. Have an Administration Assistant.
An administrative assistant (AA) is essential to process class registrations/program applications, to answer basic student questions about the details of the courses/program – referring detailed or difficult questions to faculty when appropriate, and taking care of administration of the courses. The AA also serves as a liaison with the Graduate School.

Advantages: Many tasks associated with administering a course/program are routine and do not need faculty involvement. An AA can save faculty a great deal of time.
Disadvantages: Of course hiring an AA costs money that hopefully can be recouped from the tuition generated by the course/program. Finding an AA with the right personality who can be understanding but yet firm with the students is challenging.


3. Organize the course around a textbook.
We chose to use Boron and Boulpaep’s “Medical Physiology” as the textbook for the core Medical Physiology courses. We start the courses with Chapter 1 and end it two semesters later with Chapter 62.

Advantages: Faculty are instructed as a minimum to present the material covered in the chapter associated with their assigned lecture. However, they have the academic freedom to teach the material in the order and in the style that they find most effective and consistent with their own personality/teaching style. Unless a professor states otherwise, the textbook becomes the authority in any disputes over quiz, homework, or Block exam questions.
Disadvantages: There are many physiology textbooks to choose from, with none being equally strong on all topics. In a medical physiology course I directed at the Medical College of Georgia many years ago, we tried using monographs for each section of the course, choosing what we thought was the best learning resource for that block of material. This was more expensive than recommending a single textbook and was not viewed favorably by the students.

4. Arrange the course/program so that it can be given over the Internet
For a wide variety of reasons, not all students are able to come to your campus to take courses or to enroll in your program. We recommend that all students come to campus to become immersed in the rich learning environment only physical presence on campus can provide. However, making your course/program available over the Internet gives access and opportunity to many more students. Some students do our entire program over the Internet. The degree requirements and standards of performance are exactly the same for resident and Internet students. A few take the first year of the program over the Internet and then come to Cleveland for the second year so that they can engage in clinical experiences at one of our affiliated hospitals (The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, MetroHealth Medical Center, The Cleveland VA). A few students are resident students for the first year and then move back home to take the elective courses over the Internet. A very few resident students take elective courses as Internet classes even when they are in Cleveland because of scheduling conflicts often caused by recruiting visits to medical school and other health professions programs.

Advantages: This option provides flexibility and availability of the courses/program to students who just are unable to move to Cleveland. This has a positive impact on enrollment. In the 2019 matriculating class, 45 students are taking the MSMP program over the Internet.
Disadvantages: Internet programs must be approved at the level of the university’s academic governing body. Internet courses must also be specifically approved. Extra effort must be expended to make the Internet courses/program as engaging as possible with standards that are equal for resident and Internet students. Students who take the program over the Internet often do so because they are working and cannot afford to leave their jobs. If they agree to decelerate the program (taking no more than 6 credit hours of courses/semester), their performance is essentially equal to resident students. Internet students cannot take advantage of the rich learning community that we have created for the MSMP students nor can they develop the personal friendships that naturally occur among students mutually engaged in a very demanding academic experience.


5. Allow students to begin the program or take the courses any semester.
The preferred starting semester for our program is fall semester. The core courses are available only fall and spring semester and must be taken in sequence. However, we have made the electives offered by the Physiology Department available all semesters. One semester/year, lectures in the electives are given live, are video recorded, and available to both resident and Internet students. The recorded lectures are used in the other two semesters to make the course available only over the Internet.

Advantages: This gives the students the flexibility of beginning the program at any time of the year. Since providing this option, we have increased our enrollment with ~10-15 students starting spring semester and another ~10 starting summer semester.
Disadvantages: When we originally established the program, we designed it to have the students take the core courses before they took the electives. Students starting spring and summer semesters can only take electives these semesters because the core physiology courses must be taken in sequence and are only offered once/year. Although we think that it is somewhat of a disadvantage for students to take electives before they have had the core physiology courses (they have not mastered core physiological principles before taking specialized courses), for some students it is actually an advantage because we can steer them to take elective courses which will better prepare them for the rigorous core physiology courses.

6. Discourage students from working during the course/program.
Our data shows a negative correlation between the number of hours a student works/week and their performance in the core physiology courses. During the second year in the program when students are taking electives, we actually do encourage students to work part time in a medically related position. This often takes the form of involvement in a clinical trial which is a very beneficial experience for our students. Student success in getting into a professional program is contingent upon a very good performance in our program. We consider a good performance being a final GPA of 3.5 and above. Students should be warned that working too many hours can jeopardize their chances of getting into a medical professional program.

Advantages: The MSMP program is essentially the last opportunity students have to enhance their credentials for admittance to a professional medical program. If they do not perform well in the program, they will have to move on to another career. Therefore, we must do everything to optimize their chances of success. Almost all students with a final GPA of 3.6 or above have been successful getting into a medical professional program. As their GPA tends more toward 3.0, their probability of success decreases.
Disadvantages: The students must incur additional debt in order to not work while they are enrolled in our program. If a student absolutely must work, we recommend that they decelerate the program, taking no more than 6 credit hours/semester. This often increases the time it takes the students to complete the program.

7. Choose an Internet-based Course Management System (CMS)All information about the course and learning resources for each lecture are posted at the beginning of the semester in the CMS. We have used both Blackboard and Canvas as CMSs with equal success.

Advantages: There is one easily accessible location where students can find all information about the course. Students expect all their learning resources to be in a CMS – this has become a requirement for all our courses.
Disadvantages: None


8. Provide a course syllabus
The course syllabus details which chapter in the assigned textbook will be covered during each class and lists any supplemental learning resources that will be useful to the students in the calendar of the CMS.

Advantages: Students know well ahead of time which lectures covering which textbook chapters will be given on any particular day.
Disadvantages: The details of the course must be established at the very beginning of a semester for posting in the CMS.


9. Only have experts teach their area of expertise
It is our preference to have an expert/active researcher in an area teach that area in the core courses. The electives are typically taught by faculty in their area of expertise.

Advantages: Because they are experts in the areas they teach, lecturers are best able to organize the material, create the learning resources associated with the lecture, write quiz and test questions, and answer student questions.
Disadvantages: This goal is not always achievable because there is not always a faculty member with a particular area of expertise. Therefore, faculty are sometimes asked to lecture outside their area of expertise. Experts in a particular area are not necessarily the best lecturers. Although they know the material, they may not present it in an optimal, engaging way.

Next week, the series will continue with the aspects that are important for implementation of teaching in physiology classrooms!

Dr. Nosek earned his B.S. in Physics from the University of Notre Dame in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Biophysics from The Ohio State University in 1973.  After post-doctoral research in the Cardiovascular Physiology Training Program in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, he went to the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia (1976-1997) where he was the Coordinator of the Muscle Cell Biology Research Group (conducting research on the cellular basis of muscle fatigue) and the Coordinator of the Computer Aided Instruction Research Group (editing and being a section author of “Essentials of Human Physiology:  A Multimedia Resource” published by the DxR Group).  He served as Director of the medical physiology course taught to first year medical students and was the Director of the Departments Ph.D. program.  In 1997, he moved to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine where he was Associate Dean of Biomedical Information Technologies (creating the Computer-Based Integrated Curriculum through 2006) and Professor of Physiology and Biophysics until he retired in 2014 becoming Professor Emeritus.  He served as the department’s Director of Medical Education.  He was founding Director of the MS in Medical Physiology Program at CWRU from 2010 – 2019 when he became Director Emeritus.