LAUSR

Background Flipped Classroom is a model that is quickly gaining recognition as a novel teaching approach among health science. Flipped learning turns the usual teaching model on its head. The idea is that students learn new content outside the classroom (usually online) and then tackle assignments in lessons, giving tutors more time to help them with aspects they don't understand. Objectives 1. to implement a flipped classroom teaching for rheumatology topics for both under and postgraduate education. 2. to evaluate outcomes of teaching using a post-flipped classroom assessment and a student perceived effectiveness and satisfaction questionnaire. Methods Ten online videos on topics of how to take rheumatology history, individual joint examination, handling cases of monoarthritis and polyarthritis, and metabolic bone disease were made available for the students. 39 undergraduate 35 postgraduate trainees were included in this educational activity. The students were exposed to online lecture content prior to the class-time active learning session. The teaching session adopted an interactive learning environment and the course instructor served as a facilitator rather than a dominator for the instructional process, provided in-class applied learning opportunities and offered timely feedback/guidance to students. Evaluation of the teaching session was assessed using a scenario based learning and an evaluation check list. The students were asked to complete a questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale: 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) to assess for their perceived effectiveness and satisfaction. The outcomes of the evaluation sheet and students' questionnaire, were compared to 40 undergraduate and 34 postgraduate trainees who were taught in the last year on the same topics in a lecture-based model using the standard teaching protocols, followed by scenario based learning sessions, student evaluation and satisfaction survey. Results There was no significant difference regarding socio-demographics between the 2 students' groups included in this study. Outcomes of the flipped learning revealed that 94% of the students viewed the videos prior to the class session, and 96% attended the education sessions in comparison to 86% attendance in the traditional teaching group. Students reported an increase in knowledge, a positive learning experiences and perceptions of the flipped classroom model. Students' perceived effectiveness and satisfaction scores were significantly higher among the flipped learning in contrast to the traditional teaching comparative group (4.9 vs 4.3, p<0.05). Similarly, analysis of the students' assessment scores after the scenario based learning sessions was higher in the flipped learning group compared to the students taught by traditional methods (p<0.01). Conclusions Implementation of the flipped learning for the rheumatology topics demonstrated a successful and promising platform for using technology to make better use of the students' time, and for increasing their satisfaction with the necessary didactic learning. Active learning increases student engagement and can lead to improved retention of knowledge. Disclosure of Interest None declared