Abstract
Background & Objective: Active learning strategies are much better recalled, enjoyed and understood. This article reports the design and evaluates on the student’s experience of lectures which included many opportunities for active involvement through various active learning strategies.

Materials and Methods: Active learning strategies were incorporated in almost every lecture of Respiratory Physiology for first year medical students. Several techniques like think-pair-share, pause procedures, minute papers, and discussion of MCQs, concept understanding by use of models, role plays, seminars, and working on mannequins were incorporated into the lecture format.

Results: To evaluate the affectivity of this pattern of learning, respiratory physiology test marks of the active learning batch were compared with the previous batch of traditional learning group. Mean respiratory physiology test marks on an identical test, showed significant increase (p<0.05) in the active learning cohort in comparison to the previous batch of traditional learning cohort. Feedback questionnaire regarding their experience during active learning was administered to the students. The data was evaluated and analyzed. The overall feedback revealed that the active learning strategies helped the students in better understanding (94.1%), lead to greater interest (89.4%), better interaction among peers (83.6%) and also helped in correlating the topic to clinical content (80.5%).

Conclusion: The heightened interest, understanding and interaction engaged students in the learning process. Adopting a variety of teaching-learning methods increased both teacher and learner enthusiasm. The study provides motivation to redesign our teaching strategies to encourage greater active learning among students.

Key words: Active Learning Strategies; Think-Pair-Share; Pause-Procedure; Minute Papers; Feedback Questionnaire