Abstract 2318 Student Comprehension of Biochemistry in a Flipped Classroom Format

Introduction: Upper-division undergraduate biochemistry courses are required for professional schools (Medical, Dental, Pharmacology, etc) and are attended mostly by students who are not majoring in biochemistry. Students tend come from a wide variety of educational and ethnic backgrounds and a traditional lecture that is intended to be a one-size fits all experience may not be the best method for teaching complex biochemical principles in a course focused on structure and metabolism. Methodology: Our research question is "Does changing format and delivery of the course material rather than the content increase student comprehension of biochemical principles?" To do this, we changed the traditional lecture to a Flipped Classroom format and measured engagement and exam scores to assess student learning. Lectures were recorded and posted in the Learning Management System (Canvas). In class, students filled out a 5-minute quiz assessing their understanding of basic concepts of material presented in the recorded lectures and participated in classroom activities such as individual and group problem solving, question and answer sessions, and instructor explanations of the more difficult concepts. The course was flipped for the first 7 weeks of instruction and then reverted to traditional lecture the last 8 weeks of instruction. iClicker technology was used to measure engagement and attendance in each class meeting. All research methods and materials are approved by the Internal Review Board protocol #20230622913EX. Results: Exam performance from the flipped content significantly improved over traditional lecture comparing both pre-Covid and post-Covid classes with traditional lecture format. Students felt more engaged and empowered with the classroom activities and it allowed more freedom to ask questions on the material. Within the same course, students highly preferred the flipped format over traditional lecture. Conclusions: Student engagement and understanding biochemical concepts increased with the flipped format over the traditional lecture format. In the flipped courses, students were more likely to ask questions in class due to the interactive atmosphere and were generally more satisfied with the class since they were better prepared to learn when entering the classroom. This research was not funded by any organization. We do acknowledge the guidance of the Faculty-led Inquiry in Reflective and Scholarly Teaching Project at the University of Nebraska.