Strategy Submission

This teaching strategy uses simple language and a common referent to convey complex concepts practically to facilitate students’ application. Following Knowles Adult Learning Theory, the course faculty developed this teaching strategy to make the content relevant and practical using a common referent to help students build on previous knowledge and experience. The course faculty found evidence-based practice (EBP) can be overwhelming to both undergraduate and graduate students. To help ease students fears, the course faculty related EBP to a teaching strategy intuitive to the students (online shopping). Students were asked to view a 5-minute instructor-created video posted in the learning management system. The course faculty demonstrated the following actions related to a practical problem (buying a running shoe). 1. The course faculty performed an internet search. The search terms included “best running shoe.” To help address the course faculty’s limitations on time, money, and effort in life as well as in practice, she introduced the use of filters for the search. 2. The course faculty identified biased and unbiased results. She discussed the importance of the literature search and how scholarly searches identify scholarly sources. Because sites from shoe manufacturers were likely to be biased, she identified and selected an unbiased site (such as those posted by The Buyer’s Guide). 3. The course faculty briefly reviewed the literature from the non-biased sources. 4. The course faculty interpreted the qualitative and quantitative data. When the course faculty clicked on the “buy at Amazon button, “she saw the number of ratings (sample size). She discussed how much more reliable findings are if there are data from 4,029 reviewers versus 4 reviewers. Quantitative data were reported in the star ratings and qualitative data were reported in the comments. The quantitative data were reported in numbers, and the qualitative data were reported in words. The course faculty stressed that students may prefer one over the other and that is acceptable. Both forms of data are valuable and useful. 5. The course faculty briefly interpreted data to inform the shopping decision. After the brief review, the course faculty selected a shoe to purchase. This demonstrated the role of evidence to determine the best clinical practice.