Assessing the Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom Among Undergraduate Medical Students: A Crossover Quasi-experimental Study

Background: Flipped classroom (FC) is the pedagogical shift of passive content to the pre-class phase and active learning during the class. During the pre-class session, students develop understanding, i.e., lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS). In class time, they are expected to develop application, analysis, evaluation, i.e., the higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS). The objectives were to compare HOCS gained through flipped classroom and didactic lectures (DL) and to explore learners’ perceptions of FC. Method: This study was conducted in the Community Medicine and Family Medicine (CMFM) department of a medical college in West Bengal, India. A cross-over quasi-experimental design was used with fourth-semester medical students in CMFM practical classes. A total of 125 students were divided into FC and DL groups with crossover after a fortnight during the second session. Pre- and post-tests with 10 validated multiple-choice questions were conducted, and student feedback was collected on a four-point Likert scale. Results: In the first session, the mean difference in scores in the interventional and control groups was 1.43 (SD 2.22) and 1.37 (SD 2.14), respectively, with a p-value of 0.53526. In the crossover second session, the mean difference in scores in the interventional and control groups was 0.94 (SD 1.66) and 1.18 (SD 2.01), respectively, with a p-value of 0.9442. Conclusions: Student participation in FC was low, and there was no conclusive difference in score improvements between FC and DL.