Blended teaching of medical ethics during COVID-19: practice and reflection

Abstract

Background With the advancement of information technology, teachers have become able to overcome the limitations of time and room capacity by carrying out teaching activities online. This practice, however, also presents new challenges. The present study explores how to fully capitalize on the advantages of online and offline teaching and improve the quality and impact of the teaching delivered. This article presents an analysis of the planning, implementation, evaluation, and reflection process of reforming the Fujian Medical University (FJMU) medical ethics course. Methods After early attempts using the Small Private Online Course (SPOC) and flipped classroom formats, this paper focuses on the comprehensive active implementation of blended teaching practice. In terms of teaching practice, this research makes targeted improvements to overcome the known shortcomings of SPOCs and flipped classrooms, including the significant preparatory workload and lacking enthusiasm for classroom participation, by redesigning the course and evaluation method and changing the role of the teacher in blended teaching. Subsequently, the study used a stratified sampling method to select 20 students enrolled in the clinical medicine course at Fujian Medical University (FJMU). Their course experience was investigated using a semi-structured interview. Interview content related to evaluating teaching effect was extracted and encoded for subsequent qualitative analysis. Results A qualitative analysis of the student evaluation of blended teaching as implemented on the medical ethics course showed that the main factors influencing student engagement are the method of assigning tasks and that of testing learning outcomes. Student participation in class is influenced by the richness of the curriculum resources available and the role played by the teacher. Conclusion This research presents a discussion of blended teaching and suggests improvements that can be made to address low student engagement and poor classroom participation. This round of blended teaching was shown to improve learning autonomy and classroom participation and to support students in the development of their clinical abilities and higher-order thinking skills. These findings provide a reference for the implementation of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Differences in the Effect of Offline, Blended, and Online Learning in Statistics Learning on Physical Education Students

“…The results of his research show that the scores of students taught through the Mixed Method are significantly better than the scores of students taught through the Traditional Method. It is different than the results of a study conducted by Chen et al, (2022) with the aim of knowing the effectiveness of online and offline education in universities where the results of the research show that the findings indicate that the effectiveness of online education is dismal, because students find it difficult to adjust to the mode of education. online and offline mode of education remains the most preferred mode of education.…”

Flipped online teaching of histology and embryology with design thinking: Design, practice and reflection

“…In the 2021 Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition, blended learning was once again selected as the key technology affecting the future development and practice of higher education [5], demonstrating great application potential. In this format, the teaching team adheres to the following practical principles to promote more blended learning courses to ensure high-quality outcomes [6].…”

Teaching of Human Parasitology During the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

“…And students got distracted easily by digital devices and the CBEL, as well as FC models, restrained the number of students involved in the class (usually under 15) which increased the burden on human resources and teaching fields. In onlineoffline hybrid models, students' enthusiasm and participation in the CBEL and FC models were closely related to their personalities and levels of experience (Chen et al, 2022). For online experiment education, an authentic learning experience of hands-on experiments was indispensable for laboratory skill training, and students will still require this exposure which can be achieved through offline classes.…”

“…The students' grades on human parasitology were also available for comparison among different teaching methods. And a semi-structured interview in which students were allowed to express their opinions freely was used to assess online education during the COVID-19 pandemic as well (Bıyık et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2022). Our experience may offer meaningful lessons for human parasitology teaching in other countries.…”