TESOT: a teaching modality targeting the learning obstacles in global medical education

Does active participation via integrated questions in large lectures matter?

This paper investigates whether the intensity of participation in large lecture quizzes in a tertiary education context, facilitated and monitored by an online platform, is associated with better examination performance. The platform mirrors lecture slides onto student devices and uses integrated "clicker" style questions within the lecture to quiz students on concepts learned. Using regression, we find that the intensity of quiz participation is positively related to students' performance. Student study perceptions, based on study and career plans, moderate the results. These findings are relevant to educators, especially in a post-COVID-19 learning environment, where the online quiz function could be used to foster participation.

Effectiveness of bridge-in, objective, pre-assessment, participatory learning, post-assessment, and summary teaching strategy in Chinese medical education: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The BOPPPS teaching strategy has been used recently in many medical courses as an improved and more practical pedagogy in China. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this pedagogy has not been fully assessed in terms of knowledge and skill outcomes in medical education. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the BOPPPS strategy compared with traditional lecture-based learning (LBL) in Chinese medical education. The English electronic databases of Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library and the Chinese electronic databases of CNKI, CQVIP, Wanfang, and CBM were used to search the publications related to the BOPPPS teaching strategy before 6 Jun 2022. Eligibility publications were retrieved and the data were extracted by two researchers independently according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Quality analysis was performed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and the meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 and StataSE. We retrieved 367 records and 41 studies with a total of 5,042 medical students in the meta-analysis, which included 34 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 7 Cohort studies. In the cumulative meta-analysis, BOPPPS strategy significantly increased skill scores (SS) (SMD: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.00–1.30, P < 0.00001), knowledge examination scores (KES) (SMD: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.24–1.89, P < 0.00001), comprehensive ability scores (CAS) (SMD: 1.22, 95%CI: 0.85–1.59; P < 0.00001), and teaching satisfaction (TS) (OR: 3.64; 95%CI: 2.97–4.46; P < 0.0001) compared to the LBL model among those medical students. Statistically similar results were obtained in the sensitivity analysis. These results showed that the BOPPPS method is an effective teaching strategy for Chinese medical students to improve SS, knowledge scores, CAS, and TS when compared with LBL in medical education. Because of the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, further rigorous studies are needed to conclude with more confidence.

Assessment of the effectiveness of BOPPPS-based hybrid teaching model in physiology education

BACKGROUND

Online teaching has become increasingly common in higher education of the post-pandemic era. While a traditional face-to-face lecture or offline teaching remains very important and necessary for students to learn the medical knowledge systematically, guided by the BOPPPS teaching model, combination of online and offline learning approaches has become an unavoidable trend for maximizing teaching efficiency. However, in physiological education, the effectiveness of combined online teaching and offline teaching models remains poorly assessed. The present study aims at providing an assessment to the hybrid teaching model.

METHODS

The study was performed among undergraduate medical students of Class 2017 ~ 2019 in the Physiology course in Harbin Medical University during 2018-2020. Based on established offline teaching model with BOPPPS components in 2018, we incorporated online teaching contents into it to form a hybrid BOPPPS teaching model (HBOPPPS, in brief), preliminarily in 2019 and completely in 2020. HBOPPPS effectiveness was assessed through comparing the final examination scores of both objective (multi-choice and single answer questions) and subjective (short and long essays) questions between classes taught with different modalities.

RESULTS

The final examination score of students in Class 2019 (83.9 ± 0.5) who were taught with the HBOPPPS was significantly higher than that in Class 2017 (81.1 ± 0.6) taught with offline BOPPPS and in Class 2018 (82.0 ± 0.5) taught with immature HBOPPPS. The difference mainly attributed to the increase in average subjective scores (41.6 ± 0.3 in Class 2019, 41.4 ± 0.3 in Class 2018, and 38.2 ± 0.4 in Class 2017). In the questionnaire about the HBOPPPS among students in Class 2019, 86.2% responded positively and 79.4% perceived improvement in their learning ability. In addition, 73.5% of the students appreciated the reproducibility of learning content and 54.2% valued the flexibility of HBOPPPS. Lastly, 61.7% of the students preferred the HBOPPPS relative to BOPPPS in future learning.

CONCLUSIONS

HBOPPPS is likely a more effective teaching model and useful for enhancing effectiveness of Physiology teaching. This is attributable to the reproducibility and flexibility as well as the increased learning initiatives.