This article reports on students’ experiences of lectures which included many opportunities for active engagement through cooperative learning activities. At the end of a 13-week semester-long unit, 113 students completed a questionnaire which contained five open-ended questions focusing on the extent to which the students thought that the lecture activities helped them to learn and understand the course content and to maintain their interest and attention during the sessions. Results indicate that students valued the mix of traditional lecturing and cooperative learning tasks, particularly the variety of activities, the opportunities for small-group and whole-class discussions, the clear focus on one or two central ideas, and the authenticity of the tasks.

This paper reports on how the cognitive, behavioural and affective communication competencies of undergraduate students were developed using an online Video Reflection system. Pre-service teachers were provided with communication scenarios and asked to record short videos of one another making presentations. Students then uploaded their videos to an online blog and made reflective comments about their communication actions. Students also provided reflective feedback to their peers, which was then used to inform their next presentation attempt. Student responses to a reflective questionnaire indicated that they felt the Video Reflection approach resulted in a significant improvement in their presentation capabilities. Qualitative feedback and online postings indicated that the Video Reflection process improved students' understanding of communication concepts. Students also reported reduction in communication anxiety and an increase in confidence as a result of the Video Reflection system, providing evidence for the interrelationship between the cognitive, behavioural and affective dimensions of communication.

We report the development of preservice teachers' oral presentation performance based on a technology-mediated video reflection system. Participants video-recorded oral presentations and uploaded them to an online blog to view and reflect on their performance and that of their peers. Four presentations by forty-one participants were analysed using a range of criteria based on what we call the Modes of Communication (voice, body-language, words and alignment between them) and the Constructed Impression of the communication acts (confidence, clarity, engagement and appropriateness). Results indicate a significant improvement across all criteria with a decreased rate of improvement for later iterations.

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There is growing interest in the adoption of patient-based assessments for the training of general practitioners. Consumers are in a unique position to comment on the quality of the doctor-patient interaction. Involving consumers as partners with general practice (GP) registrars and GP educators in the development of a patient feedback instrument enhances the relevance and acceptability of consumers as educators in GP training. It also demonstrates that social and medical agendas can be harmonized. Two patient feedback instruments on interpersonal skills were trialed in a training program for general practitioners in Australia. It was found that one of the instruments was more discriminating than the other because of its different response scale.