Comparison of performance of medical students between two teaching modalities “Flip the classroom” and traditional lectures: A single center educational interventional study

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to compare the students’ performance in Obstetrics and Gynecology by using two teaching modalities, i.e., Flip the classroom (FTC) compared to Traditional lectures (TL) among final year medical students and assessment of the students’ satisfaction towards FTC as learning modality. METHODS: An educational interventional study was conducted on 136 females final year medical students at Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia from September to December; 2017. Out of 40 core topics of Obstetrics and Gynecology, eight were chosen for FTC and eight for TL. The performance in each teaching modality was assessed by comparing the score of the students in multiple choice question (MCQ) and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in the final examination. The final performance was compared between the FTC and TL selected topics. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: MCQ and OSCE grades of students (n=136) were significantly higher in FTC versus TL topics, i.e., mean ± standard deviation (13.4 ± 2.7 vs. 12.3 ± 2.4; p < 0.001) and (33.9 ± 4.3 vs. 30.4 ± 4.7; p < 0.001), respectively. Almost 60% of the students expressed their satisfaction with FTC modality. CONCLUSION: Scores were significantly high for Flip the classroom topics compared to Traditional lectures.