Online education isn’t the best choice: evidence-based medical education in the post-epidemic era—a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic led many educational institutions to shift to online courses, making blended education a significant trend in teaching. We examined the effectiveness of blended learning in an evidence-based medicine course. METHODS: We compared the examination scores of a blended learning group, an online only group, and a traditional offline group and conducted a questionnaire survey on students’ preferences for different learning modes and the reasons for their preferences. A total of 2100 undergraduate students in clinical medicine were included in this cross-sectional study. Examination results were collected, and questionnaires were administered to the study participants. We compared the mean scores and exam pass rates of the three teaching groups using ANOVA and c(2)test for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: The blended group’s exam scores and pass rate were significantly higher than those of the offline and online groups. Furthermore, 71.6% preferred the blended teaching mode. In the survey on " learning effectiveness”, the majority of the students believed that blended education could better enhance the initiative of learning, the interest of the course, the pertinence of the learning content, the comprehension of evidence-based medical thinking, and the basic skills of evidence-based practice. Subsequently, in a questionnaire administered to a blended group of students, their foremost reason for liking online instruction was ‘flexible in time and space’ (99%), followed by ‘can be viewed repeatedly, facilitating a better understanding of knowledge points’ (98%). Their foremost reason for liking offline teaching was ‘helps to create a good learning atmosphere’ (97%), followed by ‘teachers can control students’ learning status in real time’ (89%). CONCLUSIONS: This study explored the effectiveness of learning in evidence-based medicine courses by comparing the learning outcomes and personal perceptions of three different teaching modes. This is the first cross-sectional study in which three different teaching models are compared and discussed in an evidence-based medicine course. We also elaborate on the specific instructional protocols for each model. This study shows that using a blended education approach in evidence-based medicine courses can improve students’ learning motivation, autonomy, and satisfaction. It also enhances instructional efficiency, thereby improving students’ understanding of the course content. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12909-023-04746-8.