Flipped classroom for undergraduate medical students in India: are we ready for it?

The teaching-learning environment has undergone a paradigm shift with the recent implementation of a Competency-Based Medical Curriculum in India. Despite this, the concept of flipped classrooms for medical students is still in its infancy in our country. We conducted an experimental randomized crossover study to find if a flipped teaching model improves learning for first-year medical undergraduate students. Students' perceptions of this novel method were also obtained and analyzed. In the first period (first part of the study), one group of students underwent the flipped model teaching (flipped teaching group), and the second group (traditional teaching group) was taught by the conventional method. A crossover was done with a second topic in the second period. A written test was conducted at the end of each period. Student feedback was also obtained. There was no statistically significant difference in students' performance on comparing traditional and flipped teaching methods. Reasons for this could be the level of the learner, prior exposure to active learning strategies, learner readiness/motivation for active learning, and timing of the study. Out of the participants, 80% of students preferred the flipped model classroom teaching, especially the interactive discussion, and expressed their desire for more frequent similar learning activities. We conclude that there was no difference in marks obtained by students in the two groups, yet they preferred the flipped classroom method, which indicates that it is feasible to adopt this method in the Indian medical undergraduate classroom.NEW & NOTEWORTHY We conducted a study to find if flipped teaching model improves the learning of medical undergraduate students and assess students' perceptions. There was no difference in marks obtained by students taught with either flipped or traditional methods. The reasons for this could be differences in the level of learner, prior exposure, or learner readiness for active learning. Since students prefer the flipped method of classroom teaching, it is feasible to adopt it in the Indian classroom.