1. How to Fight
Lecturalgia
Kevin A. Clauson, Pharm.D.

2. Who am I?
Who are you?

3. ResponseCard Activation
• Step 1: Press GO
• Step 2: Press 41
• Step 3: Press GO
• Green indicator
light should flash

4. Which program are you from?
1. Allied Health Sciences
2. Arts and Sciences
3. Business
4. Education
5. Engineering
6. Journalism
7. Law
8. Nursing
9. Pharmacy
10. Other

6. Objectives
 Discuss the underlying causes,
symptomatology, and treatments for
lecturalgia
 Explore the benefits and hurdles with
the audience response system (ARS)
 Formulate a plan to increase student
interaction and engagement with ARS

7. What is Lecturalgia?
1. Word from Latin for
‘painful lecture’
2. Endangered species
of microplankton
3. Type of nail fungus
4. Word I just made up

8. Causes of
lecturalgia
Med Educ 2001;35(12):1135-42.

9. Poor judgment

10. Poor
organization

11. Poor
delivery

13. Symptoms of lecturalgia to
watch for…

14. Tinnitus

15. Loss of consciousness

16. And of course…
texting

17. Before exposure After exposure

18. How do we combat lecturalgia?

19. What is the most effective
method for learning?
1. Face-to-face 0%
classroom courses 0%
2. Online self-paced 0%
courses
3. Online
synchronous
courses
Face-to-face clas... Online self-paced...
Online synchronou...

20. Solutions to treat
lecturalgia are
not always clear
Proceedings of World Conference on Educational
Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications
2008 (4709-4717).

21. Gamble that what you’ve always
done still works?

23. Sometimes it’s best to dive right in

24. ARS to
fight
lecturalgia
Proceedings 2008 (4709-4717).

25. Ultimately, it’s just
one more tool

26. Use as part of a
blended approach
to teaching

27. Student
populations are
increasingly
diverse with
accompanying
differences in
learning styles

28. Example Demographics
208 first year pharmacy students
 196 completed the survey
 12 declined to participate
Gender Age
Female 64.3% Average: 25
Male 35.7% Range: 20-49

29. Ethnic Group (%)
100
90
80
70
60
50
35.7 35.7
40
30 19.9
20
5.1 3.6
10
0
White Hispanic Asian Other Black

30. First or Best Language
English 62.8%
Spanish 23.5%
Other 6.1%
Vietnamese 4.6%

31. When was ARS introduced
into medical education?
1. Early 1970s
2. Early 1980s
3. Late 1980s
4. Late 1990s

32. First
generation
student
clicker
Mayo Clin Proc 1973;48:294-7.
Mayo Clin Proc 1977;52:556-60.

33. What do we
think we know?
versus
What do we
actually know?
Clinical Teacher 2008;5(4):218-21.

34. How frequently do you need to
reengage your audience?
1. Every 3 minutes
2. Every 7 minutes
3. Every 15 minutes
4. Every 30 minutes

35. Every
Minutes

36. Strategies for implementing
ARS in the classroom

37. Customize the learning experience

38. What ARS strategy are you
MOST looking forward to using?
0%
1. Factual questions to evaluate outside
readings and content
0% 2. Conceptual questions to drive
discussion
0% 3. Linkable pre- and post-test questions
4. Creating questions on the fly to gauge
0% student understanding
5. Real-time course evaluations
0%
Medical Teacher 2008;30(2):146-9.

39. Additional ARS Strategies
• Administer low stakes quizzes
• Analyze data generated and map to
objectives or outcomes
• Assess participation
• Elicit (anonymous) opinions on sensitive
topics
• Increase direct interaction with students
• Take attendance
Am J Pharm Educ 2008;72(4):77.

42. What type
of bacteria
is this?
1. Staphylococcus
2. Streptococcus
3. Meningococcus

43. What color is the cerebellum?
1. Blue
2. Green
3. Purple
4. Red
5. Yellow

44. Hurdles
with ARS

45. What will the biggest hurdle be
here for using ARS?
0% 1. Acquisition and maintenance costs
0%
2. Requirement to change teaching style
and existing lecture
0%
3. Student resistance to change
0% 4. Technology malfunctions
0%
5. Time investment by faculty to learn
software and hardware

46. What color elicits the strongest
placebo effect for depression?
1. Green
2. Red
3. Yellow
4. Pill color does not
alter response

47. BMJ 1996;313:1624-26.

48. Pilot study using ARS to
connect three campuses

49. Survey Item SA/A U SD/D
(%) (%) (%)
Use of ARS encouraged 89.8 5.1 5.1
me to participate in class
Because of ARS I 84.5 4.5 11.0
participated more than I
usually do
I valued that ARS let me 93.2 3.4 3.4
respond anonymously
The use of ARS made 72.0 15.4 12.6
some topics clearer
The use of ARS was 12.0 11.4 76.6
distracting SA=strongly agree, A=agree, U=unsure, SD=strongly disagree, D=disagree

50. Survey Item SA/A U SD/D
(%) (%) (%)
ARS helped me focus 76.0 13.1 10.9
when professor was at a
different site
ARS made it easier to 84.5 9.7 5.8
participate when professor
was at another site
When ARS were used I 73.1 17.1 9.8
felt more connected to the
class
SA=strongly agree, A=agree, U=unsure, SD=strongly disagree, D=disagree

51. In healthcare – if
you didn’t document
it, then you didn’t
do it

52. In education – if
you didn’t assess it,
you might as well
not have done it

53. Pay attention to the details

54. Summary Points
• ARS is one tool in our arsenal to increase
student engagement
• Proactively managing the hurdles will
result in a better learning experience
• Results at institutions that have
implemented have been positive across
the board

55. Images
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/30211781@N04/3938632570/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/
• http://www.villaware.com/Product.aspx?pid=1506
• http://www.eikongraphia.com/images/language/Tower_of_Babel_2_S.jpg
• http://dclips.fundraw.com/zobo500dir/ornamental_s_7.jpg
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/30211781@N04/3937853319/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/30211781@N04/3937857829/sizes/l/in/photostream/
• http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/uploads/2007/03/1292945_360x249.jpg

56. Thank you for your time!
clauson@nova.edu @kevinclauson