Purpose The flipped classroom has been suggested as a method for efficient teaching in medical education. However, its feasibility and effectiveness in the educational environment are often overlooked. The authors redesigned an epidemiology course applying the flipped classroom method under a traditional curriculum consisting of heavily scheduled classroom hours and explored its feasibility and effectiveness.
Methods In the fall semester of 2017, we flipped the ‘practice of epidemiology’ course for third-year medical students at Korea University College of Medicine. We provided online lectures and assigned readings as pre-class materials, and substituted group discussions and communicative activities for traditional lectures. We conducted pre- and post-course surveys to review students’ perceptions. We also analyzed the pre-test results and final exam scores for quantitative comparison.
Results Ninety-seven students out of 120 completed the course. Most students made use of the online lectures, but not the reading materials. Lack of time was the most frequently cited reason for under-preparedness. We observed improvements in preparedness, participation, and effectiveness at the end of the course, while changes in satisfaction were unclear. Students’ perceptions of course relevance and difficulty were predictive of pre-test outcomes, but the effects of preparedness and length of materials were insignificant. The authors found no evidence of differing test scores before and after the course.
Conclusion This study supports the feasibility of the flipped classroom model even under a traditional, heavily scheduled medical curriculum. To encourage self-directed learning and achieve better learning outcomes, restructuring pre-existing curricular components should also be considered in parallel with new instructional methods.
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The impact of the transition from flipped classroom to online lectures on learning outcomes and student satisfaction in a rehabilitation medicine clerkship during the COVID-19 pandemic Phichamon Khanittanuphong, Khanin Iamthanaporn, Jongdee Bvonpanttarananon BMC Medical Education.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
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As the health care system continues to evolve, there will be a shift in the care that physicians are asked to provide: from high-tech to patient-centered, from treatment-focused to prevention-focused. To improve the health of communities, health providers need to apply skills beyond those contained in the traditional biomedical model and must strive to encompass the community-based public health model.
Physicians must function effectively within a multidisciplinary team in order to provide optimal health care in a setting of complex needs which far exceed the capacity of any one health discipline to address adequately.
Students need first hand experience working with population issues in all learning settings - the hospital, the clinic and the community - to stimulate their interest in a population perspective. The medical education community needs to search for innovative, creative approaches to help the students develop the knowledge skills, and attitudes to practice.
Community-oriented primary care (COPC) addresses the need to train practitioners in primary care practice that is community-responsive and that includes a public health perspective. It helps bridge the gap between academic medicine and the community it is designed to serve while fostering linkages among providers and community groups. It provides the structure for the various members of a public health team, often isolated from one another within their own institutions, to share ideas that focus on the need for integrity and simplicity in a community- responsive health care system. But perhaps most importantly, it restores the social contract between medicine and society.
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