Implementation of the flipped classroom approach into STEM courses has been popularized in the last decade and has generally been reported to improve student performance outcomes. In a flipped classroom...

Background and Objectives: For years, family medicine has taught patient-centered communication through observations and observation checklists. We explored the utility of one checklist, the Patient-Centered Observation Form (PCOF), to teach and evaluate patient-centered communication in our family medicine residencies. Methods: We conducted a mixed-method study of five University of Minnesota Family Medicine Residencies’ seven years of experience teaching and evaluating residents’ patient-centered communication skills. All programs have a behavioral health (BH) faculty-led observation curriculum that uses the PCOF to assess resident skills and give feedback. We conducted a BH faculty focus group and interviews, generated themes from the BH responses, and then queried family medicine (FM) faculty regarding these themes through an online survey. Results: Ten BH faculty participated in the focus group/interviews, and 71% (25/35) of FM faculty completed the survey about themes derived from the BH interviews. The residencies complete between 1 to 11 observations per resident per year. Since implementation, four programs have continuously used the PCOF due to its versatility, design as a formative rather than summative feedback tool, and relative ease of use. BH faculty believe longitudinal observations with the PCOF resulted in improved resident patient-centered communication. Most importantly, all faculty described a shift in family medicine culture toward patient-centered communication. Time for observations and feedback is the primary curricular barrier. Conclusions: Our findings support the utility of the PCOF for teaching and evaluating patient-centered communication in family medicine training.

In an ongoing effort to increase student retention and success in the undergraduate general chemistry course sequence, a fully online preparatory chemistry course was developed and implemented at a large public research university. To gain insight about the efficacy of the online course, an observational study was carried out in which student performance on final exams and performance in the subsequent general chemistry course were compared between the online cohort and a previous student cohort which completed the preparatory chemistry course in a traditional lecture format. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to compare final exam scores and general chemistry course grades between the online and in-person student cohorts, while statistically controlling for incoming student academic achievement. Results from these analyses suggest the fully online course resulted in statistically significant increases in both the preparatory chemistry final exam scores and course grades in the subsequent general chemistry course. Because the retention of less academically prepared students in STEM majors is a historical problem at the institution in which the online preparatory chemistry course was implemented, the analyses also aimed to determine if this at-risk group demonstrated similar achievement relative to the population at large. Notably, it was determined that students with the lowest incoming Math SAT scores appeared to perform better in the online course relative to the analogous group of students in the inperson course. Though the observational nature of this study does not allow for the determination of causality, these results suggest a fully online course can result in improved performance for large populations of students, without resulting in a negative achievement gap for less academically prepared students. The structure and implementation of the online course and the results from the statistical analyses will be described herein.

<p>In an ongoing effort to increase student retention and success in the undergraduate general chemistry course sequence, a fully online preparatory chemistry course was developed and implemented at a large public research university. To gain insight about the efficacy of the online course, post-hoc analyses were carried out in which student performance on final exams, and performance in the subsequent general chemistry course were compared between the online cohort and a previous student cohort who completed the preparatory chemistry course in a traditional lecture format. Because the retention of less academically prepared students in STEM majors is a historical problem at the institution in which the online preparatory chemistry course was implemented, post-hoc analyses were also carried out to determine if this at-risk group demonstrated similar achievement relative to the population at large. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to compare final exam scores and general chemistry course grades between the online and in-person student cohorts, while statistically controlling for incoming student academic achievement. Results from these analyses suggest the fully online course led to increased final exam scores in the preparatory course (unstandardized <i>B</i> = 8.648, <i>p</i> < 0.001) and higher grades in the subsequent general chemistry course (unstandardized <i>B</i> = 0.269, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Notably, students from the lowest quartile of incoming academic preparation appear to have been more positively impacted by the online course experience (preparatory chemistry final exam scores: unstandardized <i>B</i> = 11.103, <i>p</i> < 0.001; general chemistry course grades: unstandardized <i>B</i> = 0.323, <i>p</i> = 0.002). These results suggest a fully online course can help improve student preparation for large populations of students, without resulting in a negative achievement gap for less academically prepared students. The structure and implementation of the online course, and the results from the post-hoc analyses will be described herein. </p>