Flipping a biochemistry class within a medical curriculum: Impacts on perception, engagement, and attainment

Abstract

The flipped classroom has gained prominence in higher education, but little has been written about its application in the Middle East. This study aimed to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and impact of flipping biochemistry classes in comparison to the traditional didactic program. The study was conducted on first-year medical students taking biochemistry at a private University in Saudi Arabia. A series of short, pre-recorded videos were used to replace traditional lectures. The scheduled lecture time was used for problem solving and discussion sessions. To gather their evaluation of the learning approach, participants completed an online survey. To study the effect of the learning approach on exam performance, the scores of the participants were compared in questions taught using the flipped classroom versus the traditional didactic method. Participants noted that the effort needed for the course was similar regardless of the learning approach. Moreover, examination performance measured using single best answer multiple-choice questions showed no difference between the two teaching methods. However, the participants did report a significantly better perception of the flipped classroom compared to the traditional approach. Although no significant improvement in examination results was noted, the participants significantly favored the flipped classroom over traditional lectures. This study has demonstrated that the flipped classroom can be used in the teaching of the biosciences within a Middle Eastern setting, resulting in an improvement in student satisfaction and engagement in the course materials. K E Y W O R D S attainment, biosciences, flipped classroom, Middle East, perception 1 | BACKGROUND The rapidly evolving nature of education in the context of significant technological developments has led many educational institutions worldwide to investigate and Abbreviations: F, flipped; T, traditional; UPP, university preprofessional program. Hana. M. A. Fakhoury and Hanaa A. Fatoum have contributed equally to this work.

Flipped Classroom (FCR) as an Effective Teaching-Learning Module for a Large Classroom: A Mixed-Method Approach

“…This is corroborated by the subjective feedback wherein all three teachers found that preparation for FCR was more time-consuming and required extra effort than traditional lectures. This finding is also in concurrence with earlier studies [17]. After the preparation of the video lecture, it was validated by the Delphi method by three subject experts (the involved teachers in FCR).…”

“…Very few studies have used the FCR approach in large class sizes [13][14][15][16][17][18]. To establish any TLM, there are a few considerations, i.e., its feasibility, validity, effectiveness, and user satisfaction.…”

“…Its feasibility for small class sizes is beyond doubt, but studies are also trying to replicate this model for large groups by categorizing them into smaller teams. Compared to traditional lectures, the effectiveness of FCR has yielded conflicting results, with few reporting more [15,18], equal [13,17], or even less beneficial [14] in terms of scores achieved. Only one of the studies conducted in a large group has compared the pre-and post-test scores after exposure to FCR; this is important because the difference in scores between traditional lecture and FCR could be confounded easily by the basal knowledge of students about a particular subject [16].…”

“…Moreover, the users for any TLM include both students and teachers. However, most studies on large group FCR have taken student feedback, and only one study has mentioned the perspective of a single teacher regarding FCR conduction [17]. The present study was planned to propose a feasible structure for conduction of FCR in a large classroom and establish its overall utility as TLM for undergraduate medical students in large class size settings with quantitative and qualitative criteria.…”

Engagement with video content in the blended classroom

“…These personal observations are echoed in the literature, with students reporting that they would rather not attend than arrive having not engaged or do not find videos an effective way to learn [ 49 ]. Nevertheless, flipped learning is an effective tool, and a recent study by Fakhoury et al (2021) demonstrated that students seem to prefer the flipped approach to learning [ 50 ]. As an alternative in-class time can be spent on the core learning points with the video material to be watched later, adding depth and breadth.…”