Nicole Reinke

The physiological processes involved in the movement of molecules across a cell membrane form the basis for understanding several core concepts of physiology. A 10-item, two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test was developed to evaluate first-year physiology students’ knowledge of active transport across the cell membrane. The diagnostic test was developed by collating common mistakes and areas of troublesome knowledge from tutorial worksheets, academic discussions, and the literature. A list of propositional statements was constructed, and questions were developed from these statements. The test was further refined following dialogue with students and physiology teaching staff. Analysis of the responses from two cohorts of first-year Human Physiology students (n = 886) demonstrated the assessment had a wide range of difficulty and good discrimination. Students performed better on the tier-one questions (What?) compared to the tier 2 questions (Why?). Several misconceptions were identified around the transport of glucose across the membrane, the predominant ions in the extracellular and intracellular fluids, and the role of ATP in active membrane transport. This diagnostic information can be used as a learning tool for students as a self-testing strategy, and for teachers as a method to evaluate and modify teaching practices.

Freely accessible generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) poses challenges to physiology education regarding learning and academic integrity. While many studies have explored the capabilities of GenAI to complete assessments, few have implemented educative activities to highlight GenAI risks and benefits, or explored physiology students' perceptions and uses of GenAI. Our study implemented a learning activity, designed using constructivist principles, to allow for physiology students to explore GenAI and consider its use in assessment tasks. The activity engaged students (n=236) enrolled in a second-year physiology subject over two years. The activity began with students directed to critique a sample exam answer as a form of content revision. The answer had been covertly generated by ChatGPT, and it lacked depth and contained some hallucinated facts. Students then engaged in discussion about the use of GenAI for university study and assessment. Questions were used to stimulate thought and discussion, and student responses were collected via Padlet (492 posts). Thematic analysis of the comments highlighted students' beliefs about using GenAI, and perceived benefits and risks. There was a general trend of increasing acceptance of using GenAI, and using if for assessment, over time. Students were concerned about breaching academic integrity guidelines, information accuracy and sources, and the negative effect it may have on their learning. At the conclusion of the activity, the revelation that ChatGPT wrote the sample exam answer reinforced the need for responsible GenAI use.

Academic integrity in tertiary education is a global concern. This chapter describes academic integrity in Australian universities and proposes an “it takes a village” framework to guide universities toward a re-evaluation of academic integrity education. It takes a village to raise a child – a child needs role models and positive influences from multiple people for healthy growth and development. With regard to academic integrity, the parallel is that the entire university community needs to be involved to foster development of students of integrity. The institution and its community need to provide structures, multiple positive and effective learning experiences, and clear guidelines to support both staff and students. In this chapter, we argue that academic integrity needs to be seen as a complex system, one in which everyone involved has responsibility to develop and maintain a culture of integrity and one which supports a student throughout their academic journey.

Abstract biological processes that occur at the submicroscopic level, such as osmosis and diffusion, are inherently difficult for many students to conceptualize when traditional learning and teaching methods are used. This study introduced an immersive 320° three-dimensional (3D) experience of osmosis in which students became engaged with the cellular environment in a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. The aims of this study were: 1) to explore whether a textbook diagram of osmosis recreated as an immersive 3D learning experience would be a meaningful tutorial activity for first-year cell biology students at a regional Australian university; and 2) to gather preliminary evidence of the utility of the tutorial by examining student performance data. The experience was perceived by students to be fun, useful, and educational. Performance of all students improved on a multiple-choice exam question, with the percentage of students choosing the osmosis distractor answer decreasing from 26 to 15% (p < 0.001). Those students with moderate to high base-level knowledge also performed better on short-answer questions about the cell membrane and osmosis (10–14% better, depending on base-level knowledge, p < 0.001). We give recommendations for future studies to investigate using immersive visualization in science teaching.

Students from three undergraduate programs at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, studying combined first-year anatomy and physiology courses, showed different academic achievement in physiology. Physiotherapy students were more active and social when completing learning tasks and achieved significantly higher grades in physiology compared with students enrolled in Sport and Exercise Science and Occupational Therapy programs. To promote academic engagement and achievement by all three groups, discussion questions, case studies, and study guides were included. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using these modified resources to promote active learning, enhance academic social interactions, and provide a supportive learning environment. The occupational therapy students showed increased academic achievement (from 57.9 to 66.5%) following implementation of the new resources, but there was no change in the already high-performing physiotherapy students (73.1%) and, more concerningly, the sport and exercise science students (from 54.6 to 56.7%). Fewer sport and exercise science students had prior learning in chemistry (30.4% of participants) and also spent little time outside class studying (8 h/wk), compared with the physiotherapy cohort (70.0% chemistry; 13 h/wk studying). Findings of this research demonstrate that creating a supportive and active learning environment are important factors in promoting the learning of physiology for some cohorts. Background knowledge, academic self-regulatory skills, and the experience of teaching staff are factors that must be considered when endeavoring to increase student academic achievement. Future studies should examine the effect of students' academic self-regulation and the use of remedial chemistry classes when learning physiology.

Background: Many pre-registration nursing programs in Australia use distributive models of clinical placement whereby students attend placement on regular days each week of the teaching semester. The use of this model offers practical advantages by increasing the placement offerings, but reduces the weekdays available for students to attend on-campus classes. The impact of introducing this model on the delivery of on-campus classes has not been examined. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the impact of delivering classes using a condensed weekly timetable on the academic achievement, learning experiences and approaches to learning of pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing Science students at an Australian regional university. Methods: This was a mixed methods study, including Likert-type and free text responses. Second-year students studying Human Pathophysiology and Pharmacology were invited to complete a questionnaire about their learning practices and experiences; student grades were obtained from official university records. Results: The academic achievement of students learning under the condensed class schedule was approximately 7.5% lower than that achieved by cohorts prior to the timetable changes. This resulted in an additional 9% of the cohort failing the subject compared to previous cohorts. Many students reported that they did not prepare adequately for classes and that their learning experiences were negatively impacted by the condensed class timetable. Conclusions: The incorporation of a distributed model for clinical placements required major changes to the delivery of on-campus coursework classes and added to the semester workload for some Nursing Science students. These changes coincided with lower academic achievement by students learning Human Pathophysiology and Pharmacology and poorer quality learning experiences. The development of students' awareness of how they study and the effectiveness of their study practices may help them to develop self-regulated learning skills which will assist them to succeed in diverse learning environments and workplaces.