Effectiveness of blended learning versus conventional didactic teaching in pathology education outcomes

Traditional didactic lectures in pathology often promote passive learning, limiting students' ability to apply knowledge clinically. Therefore, it is of interest to compare the learner outcomes between blended learning and traditional didactic lectures among 110 second-year MBBS students. The blended learning group demonstrated significantly superior performance in application-based scores (mean difference 4.5, p<0.001, d=1.85), total examination scores (difference 5.5, p<0.001, d=1.48) and all learner engagement domains (p<0.001) with large effect sizes. Student satisfaction was also markedly higher with blended learning (4.32±0.51 versus 3.48±0.62, p<0.001). Thus, data shows the blended learning enhances higher-order cognitive skills, engagement and satisfaction into competency-based medical curricula for pathology education.