Student attitudes towards semi-flipped classroom teaching in a pre-clinical graduate entry to medicine Physiology module

Objectives: Several studies have demonstrated that ‘flipped classroom’ teaching can significantly enhance student learning. However, there is still relatively little evidence of its successful deployment with regard to the teaching of medical students generally or, more specifically, on accelerated degree programmes such as graduate entry to medicine (GEM). Therefore, we sought to determine the quantitative and qualitative effects of ‘semi-flipped classroom’ teaching within a respiratory physiology component of a first year GEM module. Methods: Students were asked to view vodcasts of lecture material prior to attending each of 6 live lectures within the module under study. Class time was then utilised for students to apply their new knowledge either by answering questions or through discussion. Students views of semi-flipped teaching were obtained upon completion of the module via an attitudinal survey. Additionally, student performance in three different exam formats were assessed a control GEM cohort who had completed the same physiology component the year before. Results: Exam performance did significantly improve relative to the previous GEM 1 cohort in two of the three exam formats used, but this improvement may have been due to other factors. However, survey data revealed that this mode of teaching was not popular with the majority of the students due to a perceived increase in workload upon an already heavy study load. Conclusions: Semi-flipped teaching as deployed here does not seem ideally suited to this particular cohort of medical students due to the extremely compressed and intensive nature of their course