Effective and Time-Efficient Implementation of a Flipped-Classroom in Preclinical Medical Education

The flipped classroom (FC) model of instruction has inherent barriers to implementation in medical education due to amount of content taught versus time allotted, the widespread adoption of interdisciplinary course structure causing a plethora of instructors responsible for content delivery, and trends to reduce the number of weeks to teach preclinical foundational science. Here we report on a FC model executed in an interdisciplinary endocrinology block in a time-saving manner, while preserving student preferences and satisfaction and improving written assessment performance. In this study, traditional lectures were 100% replaced with pre-session assignments (custom video modules) resulting in less time (- 9 h) spent on first pass learning. In-person, active-learning, case-based sessions were created (+ 8 h) to complete the FC model and achieve higher level understanding. Written assessment performance in the endocrinology block was compared between two cohorts: the FC model and traditional lecture model. The FC model cohort outperformed the traditional lecture cohort on written, multiple-choice assessments (both in-house and NBME assessments). Furthermore, a measured (survey data) student preference for the FC model was observed.