Case- Versus Lecture-Based Learning in a Public Health Course for OptometryStudents: A Pretest–Posttest Design

Abstract

Optometrists play a vital role in the prevention and management of many eye diseases. The expansion of optometrists’ prescribing and overall medical privileges has placed a burden on the optometric curriculum, limiting hours in professional topics courses such as practice management and public health. While the overall objectives may differ, the pedagogical challenges would be similar in public health training programs. That is, reduced hours and limited contact with students during the current COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic both place pedagogical demands on the optometric and public health educator alike to meet learning objectives and course outcomes using atypical methods. As the current evidence about problem- or scenario-based versus lecture-based outcomes is equivocal, we randomly assigned half the students in an epidemiology/public health course to a case-based learning (CBL) group using three instructors naïve to problem-based teaching. The other half of the students attended lectures covering the same topics. Performance gains—the differences between the pretest and posttest scores—were compared between the two learning groups. The mean performance gain for the CBL group ( M = 25.5%) was slightly higher than for the lecture-based learning group ( M = 23.6%), but the difference was not statistically significant, t(56) = 0.71, p = .48. Inferences are discussed in the context of the study’s design and limitations. Overall, we believe our results can be extended to public health and health professions programs needing creative methods to reach health promotion learning objectives with limited student contact.