key: cord-0835318-3hpu0rre
authors: Suwannaphisit, Sitthiphong; Anusitviwat, Chirathit; Tuntarattanapong, Pakjai; Chuaychoosakoon, Chaiwat
title: Comparing the effectiveness of blended learning and traditional learning in an orthopedics course: A retrospective cohort study
date: 2021-11-18
journal: Ann Med Surg (Lond)
DOI: 10.1016/j.amsu.2021.103037
sha: 8050276a4dcaded99224a9f89838741413e11038
doc_id: 835318
cord_uid: 3hpu0rre

INTRODUCTION: The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is forcing 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 have to date been few studies comparing the effectiveness of traditional teaching with blended teaching based on the students' final grades which the efficacy of online learning is still controversial, and this study aimed to compare the efficacy of blended teaching with conventional teaching in an orthopedics course. METHODS: This study was a retrospective cohort study based on data collected from fifth-year medical students between April 2019 and March 2021. The students were divided into two groups which based on years of study. The summative assessment was based on summing the MCQs plus KFs, the MEQ plus oral exam, OSCE, simulated patient chart reviews, and OPD work. All students took the same end-of-course quizzes with no differences 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 the study, of whom 128 and 124 students were in the traditional teaching group or blended teaching groups, 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-value = 0.06). The scores in the 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 not less effective than traditional learning for teaching medical students.

Results: A total of 252 students were enrolled in the study, of whom 128 and 124 23 students were in the traditional teaching group or blended teaching groups, 

Introduction 34 The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is forcing medical schools to replace 35 substantial parts of the traditional lecture method with online formats to maintain 36 social distancing guidelines and reduce face-to-face contact in the classroom. The 37 most common teaching method traditionally in medical education is the lecture. 38 The advantage of a lecture is that it is able to transfer information from medical 39 educators to a large number of students at the same time, and it is a simple and The major advantage of online learning is that students can learn anywhere and anytime. There are also several disadvantages of online learning, however, 48 such as the lack of social support, especially peer support, and the lack of physical Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of traditional 66 teaching and blended teaching based on the students' final grades. Our hypothesis 67 was that there would be no differences between the methods. 

The marks of the quizzes were taken from the secretary's office in the form 130 of an Excel sheet that did not contain any names only the results of the whole class.

The data were analyzed using R program Version 3.4.5 (R Foundation for 132 Statistical Computing, Austria). Descriptive statistics are given in percentages and 133 mean ± SD. To evaluate the effectiveness of the two methods the paired-samples t 134 test was used. A P value of < 0.05 was considered significant.

A total of 252 students were enrolled in the Orthopedics online course respectively, a non-significant difference (p = 0.06) ( Table 1) .

The scores of each assessment tool comparing between the blended learning 

Not Another Boring 225 Lecture: Engaging Learners with Active Learning Techniques

The use of elearning in medical education: a review of the 228 current situation

Web-based learning: pros, cons and controversies

E-learning for health professionals

The authors sincerely thank Nannapat Pruhetkaew of the Epidemiology