Flipped online teaching of histology and embryology with design thinking: design, practice and reflection

Flexible hybrid teaching has become the new normal of basic medical education in the postepidemic era. Identifying ways to improve the quality of curriculum teaching and achieve high-level talent training is a complex problem that urgently needs to be solved. Over the course of the past several semesters, the research team has integrated design thinking (DT) into undergraduate teaching to identify, redesign and solve complex problems in achieving curriculum teaching and professional talent training objectives.

This study is an observational research. A total of 156 undergraduate stomatology students from Jining Medical University in 2021 were selected to participate in two rounds of online flipped teaching using the design thinking EDIPT (empathy, definition, idea, prototype, and test) method. This approach was applied specifically to the chapters on the respiratory system and female reproductive system. Data collection included student questionnaires, teacher-student interviews, and exam scores. GraphPad Prism software was used for data analysis, and the statistical method was conducted by multiple or unpaired t test.

According to the questionnaire results, the flipped classroom teaching design developed using design thinking methods received strong support from the majority of students, with nearly 80% of students providing feedback that they developed multiple abilities during the study process. The interview results indicated that teachers generally believed that using design thinking methods to understand students' real needs, define teaching problems, and devise instructional design solutions, along with testing and promptly adjusting the effectiveness through teaching practices, played a highly positive role in improving teaching and student learning outcomes. A comparison of exam scores showed a significant improvement in the exam scores of the class of 2021 stomatology students in the flipped teaching chapters compared to the class of 2020 stomatology students, and this difference was statistically significant. However, due to the limitation of the experimental chapter scope, there was no significant difference in the overall course grades.

The study explores the application of design thinking in histology and embryology teaching, revealing its positive impact on innovative teaching strategies and students' learning experience in medical education. Online flipped teaching, developed through design thinking, proves to be an effective and flexible method that enhances student engagement and fosters autonomous learning abilities.