BACKGROUND: The existence of general courses in the curriculum of medical sciences disciplines is essential to meet the individual and ethical needs, societal requirements, and the professional commitment of students. Currently, interactive lecture is the most common teaching method for general courses, which leads to apathy and non-participation of new generation. Utilizing educational technologies with student-centered approaches is emphasized for active learning. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the blended learning environment including peer-teaching and multimedia compared to interactive lecture in the Life Rules; Applied Ethics course in medical sciences with an evaluation based on Kirkpatrick’s model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A semi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design was conducted. 420 students of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences were randomly assigned into two groups. The teaching method in the control group was interactive lecture and blended learning (peer teaching and multimedia) in the intervention group. Course satisfaction questionnaire with 17 items and the MCQ test with 15 questions measured levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick’s model respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistical tests with STATA 14 software. RESULTS: The knowledge score in the blended learning group was higher than the interactive lecture group, and this difference was statistically significant ( P < 0.001). Course satisfaction level was 70.83 in the blended learning group and 36.09 in the interactive lecture group. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study demonstrated blended learning environment improves knowledge and satisfaction in general courses by providing audio and visual content and opportunities for active learning. Determining the effectiveness of student-centered approaches and applying them, can lead to the promotion of active learning, which in turn leads to the improvement of the curriculum at the macro level, responding to the needs of individual and ethical development, societal needs, and promoting the professional commitment of new generation.
Bahrami et al. (Sun,) studied this question.