Rolling Dice – Creative ways of engaging students with problem-based learning

In the Beginning…

I decided on the content and selected some activities to help embed the learning with the students but I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to do an activity that the students would find fun, and engaging as well as developing their learning. It also had to be time-efficient to prepare because there were doughnuts in the office and quite a few people were in!

I considered problem-based learning approaches, which involve students working together in groups to solve complex issues (Allen et al. 2011; Loyens et al. 2012). This approach helps to foster a deeper understanding, promote verbal communication skills, and develop teamwork (Hmelo-Silver 2004). A popular method of problem-based learning is the use of case studies (Romero et al. 2004; Ballantyne and Knowles 2007). Case studies allow students to engage in in-depth explorations of situations and events (Crowe et al. 2011). They help to develop problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and professional judgments (Ertmer and Russell 1995). They also help to relate theory with practice in the safety of the classroom (Napier 2010). However, case studies can take a long time to write, and I would need to write several of them to be effective for the students to work in small groups (Popil 2011). I had a lot to do so I made a ‘To Do List’ to prioritise the most important tasks that lay ahead.

I got myself a doughnut, and then I began to think about this activity. As I pondered this conundrum my mind wandered to Dungeons and Dragons [D&D]. I play D&D regularly with a group of friends and I have a good collection of books. Many of these have pages of Random Tables that are used to help determine things like a person’s characteristics, items in a room, or the location of certain objects. When planning a D&D session one would roll a die and use the corresponding number in the random table to help generate ideas. I thought about how I could use this for my students, and I soon formed a cunning plan!

The Cunning Plan

With this cunning plan in mind, I began designing some random tables. The tables contained different sets of information including types of accommodation, types of support, recent events, presenting symptoms, personality quirks, and the current location of the patient. The students would roll dice and use the elements in the tables to write their own case study. They would then pass their case study to another group as a referral. They would engage in problem-based learning to ascertain what the risks were for that patient, and how they, as AMHPs, could go about addressing the risks.

When running the activity for the first time I arranged the class into five small groups of five or six people, as this tends to be the optimal size for stimulating group discussions (Corrégé and Michinov 2021). This size would also encourage critical thinking and deep learning among the students (Pollock et al. 2011). Each group was given a set of tables, followed by a set of dice. The dice immediately drew the students’ interest. The dice were different colours and different sizes.

As the students rolled their dice and created their patients, the energy levels in the room seemed to rise. There was lots of sharing of ideas. Each group seemed pleased with the case study they had designed. When they passed their case study to another group, the students were keen to see how the new group would deal with the issues.

A number of students provided some impromptu feedback at the end of the session. They told me they had enjoyed the activity. People said they found it useful to look at a situation and have things that they needed to address/be aware of, which they may not have thought about before.

What the future holds

These random tables can be used over and over again and will result in different scenarios each time. I have since developed more tables to reflect other service-user groups such as older people, children & young people, people with learning disabilities and carers. They are also not limited to AMHP students. They can be used with social work students, OTs, nurses, and various other cohorts.

I am currently writing a paper on the use of these tables and I am looking to recruit lecturers and educators. If anyone wants to use these tables and would be happy for themselves and their students to complete a survey on how the activity went, please get in touch.

References:

• Allen, D. E., Donham, R. S. and Bernhardt, S. A., 2011. Problem‐based learning. New directions for teaching and learning, 2011 (128), 21-29.
• Ballantyne, N. and Knowles, A., 2007. Enhancing student learning with case-based learning objects in a problem-based learning context: The views of social work students in Scotland and Canada. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3 (4), 363-374.
• Corrégé, J.-B. and Michinov, N., 2021. Group Size and Peer Learning: Peer Discussions in Different Group Size Influence Learning in a Biology Exercise Performed on a Tablet With Stylus. Frontiers in Education, 6.
• Crowe, S., Cresswell, K., Robertson, A., Huby, G., Avery, A. and Sheikh, A., 2011. The case study approach. BMC Med Res Methodol, 11, 100.
• Ertmer, P. A. and Russell, J. D., 1995. Using Case Studies to Enhance Instructional Design Education. Educational Technology, 35 (4), 23-31.
• Hmelo-Silver, C. E., 2004. Problem-Based Learning: What and How Do Students Learn? Educational Psychology Review, 16 (3), 235-266.
• Loyens, S. M. M., Kirschner, P. A. and Paas, F., 2012. Problem-based learning.
• Napier, J., 2010. A Case Study of the Use of Storytelling as a Pedagogical Tool for Teaching Interpreting Students. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, 4 (1), 1-32.
• Pollock, P., Hamann, K. and Wilson, B., 2011. Learning Through Discussions: Comparing the Benefits of Small-Group and Large-Class Settings. Journal of Political Science Education, 7, 48-64.
• Popil, I., 2011. Promotion of critical thinking by using case studies as teaching method. Nurse education today, 31 (2), 204-207.
• Romero, R. M., Eriksen, S. P. and Haworth, I. S., 2004. A decade of teaching pharmaceutics using case studies and problem-based learning. Am J Pharm Educ, 68 (2), 31.