Qwizdom Audience Response System Provides the Feedback Needed for Medical Training

Introduction

“I am the Lead Instructor for the Paramedic Program at St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, CO. I am responsible for (the) delivery of the pharmacology portion of the program and monitoring guest lecturers. I have been using Qwizdom for approximately 11 to 12 years.”

Needs and Challenges

In describing the field of training that the Qwizdom ARS is used, Mr. Matoba says that the system is used in Emergency Medical Services training, and both initial and continuing education. Training sessions for the paramedic program have groups of 36 students.

Solution

Mr. Matoba says that Qwizdom is used in “just about every aspect of our training.” The training team uses the Actionpoint plug-in for PowerPoint to create quizzes, or Student Check Points. Student data from the quizzes are acquired through the AnswerKey tool. Mr. Matoba states that AnswerKey is his favorite feature of the Qwizdom ARS because “it is great to electronically acquire test answers and organize data for item discrimination.” He goes on to say that “acquiring real time data from our students is invaluable. It allows us to identify positive as well as negative trends before they become larger issues.”

They also use one of the system’s games, Quandary (a Jeopardy-style game) to review module concepts.

Feedback

“The nice thing about Qwizdom ARS is it forces every student to be engaged with the education as it is being delivered.”

Mr. Matoba also feels that using the Qwizdom system has “improved the overall quality of our program.” He says that the data provided from each training session helps to “identify trends before they become issues.”

Robert (Bob) Matoba, Primary Instructor / St. Anthony Paramedic Academy