The Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Higher Pharmaceutical Education

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the apparent advantages of the flipped classroom model especially during a pandemic or natural or technogenic disasters, its overall effectiveness in higher medical and pharmaceutical education continues to be debated. AIM: The goal of the study was to test the effectiveness and acceptability of using the flipped classroom model during the COVID-19 pandemic in higher pharmaceutical education based on the example of the “Pharmaceutical Marketing” discipline at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Russia. METHODS: The study involved 156 fourth-year pharmacy students. They were divided into three clusters: FC – studying in accordance with the flipped classroom model, FC+TBL – using the flipped classroom technology combined with the team-based method, and CC – studying by the traditional scheme (control). The study used the Unified educational portal of the Sechenov University. Additional elements were developed for the electronic educational and methodical complex for the studied section “Analysis of the marketing environment of a pharmaceutical organization.” The effectiveness of the flipped classroom model was evaluated through test control (entrance, formative, thematic, and final) and control of the development of skills and abilities in solving situational problems (thematic and final). The study participants’ attitude toward the use of the flipped classroom model was assessed through a survey. RESULTS: The study demonstrated that students from the FC and FC+TBL clusters were significantly better prepared for practical lessons and worked more effectively and productively during these classes compared to the CC cluster students. The results of the final control also substantiate the advantages of the flipped classroom technology both in assessing practical skills and abilities and in testing. The opportunities for rational implementation of the complex technology (FC+TBL cluster) are identified. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of students’ general opinion on the flipped classroom model shows that 90.4% of the FC cluster members and 84.6% of the FC+TBL cluster members are satisfied with the results of using this model and consider it suitable for studying both the “Analysis of the marketing environment of a pharmaceutical organization” section and the entire pharmaceutical marketing course. Students’ positive feedback on the use of the flipped classroom model provides grounds for further implementation of this technology in the “Pharmaceutical Marketing” discipline in its entirety and demonstrates that further research on the use of other blended learning models is quite promising.

Inverted classes as a successful tool to overcome teaching and learning challenges imposed by COVID-19 lockdown to food microbiology laboratory classes

“…Maintenance of students' good performances as well as good students' engagement in the learning process have been also described all over the world in studies reporting online inverted classes as a pedagogical model during COVID-19 lockdowns or other contexts and related to different CUs comprising human health topics ( Banks and Kay, 2022 , Divjak et al, 2022 , Hew and Lo, 2018 , Ji et al, 2022 , Litvinova et al, 2022 ). Specifically, in the Microbiology and/or Food Science teaching, Salter and Gardner (2016) concluded that the combination of online inverted classes and face-to-face classes was the students' preference, promoting a variety of learning experiences and catered for a range of learning styles.…”

“…Although there are several reports on online laboratory classes for diverse scientific areas ( Banks and Kay, 2022 , Cormier and Voisard, 2018 , Divjak et al, 2022 , Hew and Lo, 2018 , Ji et al, 2022 , Litvinova et al, 2022 , Mshayisa and Basitere, 2021 , Salter and Gardner, 2016 ), information on the application of inverted classes to the teaching of Food Microbiology for undergraduate students is unknown. Here, we described the use of inverted classes in the laboratory teaching of Food Microbiology CUs taught to PSIMD and NSFD students of University of Porto during a semester comprising online and face-to-face classes due to on/off COVID-19 lockdown periods.…”