Comparing The Effectiveness of Blended Learning and Traditional Learning in An Orthopedics Course.

Abstract

Background The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is driving medical schools to replace substantial parts of the traditional lecture method with online formats to maintain social distancing guidelines, and reduce face-to-face contact in the classroom. To our knowledge, there were a few studies comparing the effectiveness of traditional teaching and blended teaching based on the students’ final grades which the efficacy of online learning is still controversy. This study aims to compare the efficacy of blended teaching and conventional teaching in an orthopedics course. Methods This study was a retrospective cohort study which collected from fifth-year medical students between April 2019 and March 2021. The students were divided into two groups which based on years of education. The summative assessment was based on summing the MCQs plus KFs, the MEQ plus oral exam, OSCE, simulated-chart of patients, and OPD. All students were subjected to the same end of course quizzes with no difference between the groups regarding the kinds of knowledge tested. The results of these quizzes were used to compare the effectiveness of the conventional teaching in 2019 and the blended teaching in 2020. The paired t-test was used to analyze the data. Results A total of 252 students were enrolled in this study, of whom 128 and 124 patients were in traditional teaching group or blended teaching, respectively. The grade point averages of the students were 3.2 ± 0.4 and 3.3 ± 0.4 in 2019–2020 and 2020–2021, respectively, without significant difference (p = 0.06). The scores in blended learning group were higher than in the traditional learning group in all assessment tools (MCQ, KF, Oral, and OSCE scores) except the MEQ. Conclusions Blended learning was as effective as traditional learning for teaching medical students. However, well-designed, randomized controlled trials are needed to further analyze the educational structure and investigate the factors related to the effectiveness of this type of learning.