gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: The didactic lecture continues to be a commonly used instructional method in medical education despite the criticism of allowing students to assume a passive role. With new technology, this traditional approach may be redefined by combining it with online activities. The aim of this research is to investigate how this can be done to enhance student learning.

Methods: A 30-hour anatomy lecture was redesigned into a blended learning format of 6 sequential organ-based modules. 23 hours were allocated to f2f instruction, 7 hours to online activities, including preparatory fill-in-the-blank assignments, clinically related videos, and mc-quizzes for each module. To investigate students’ study behaviour and perception of learning, 3 focus-groups were conducted and thematically analysed.

Results: Students reported that online activities “pushed them towards a first engagement with the material”, videos “generated curiosity”, quizzes “made them think”. The familiarity with the basics liberated them from the “worry of missing something important” during f2f instruction, facilitating active participation and “deeper understanding”. Self-study before the examination was described as “easier and faster”, participants stated that “contents would remain for a longer time in memory”.

Discussion: The findings indicate that preparatory online work can prevent students from being passive recipients of information during lectures. Students engaged more actively, more deeply, and over a longer period of time with the course material, thus indicating enhanced learning on the parts of the students. Further research is needed to validate the findings with diverse samples and across various institutional settings. We suggest that research then focuses on quantifying long-term retention of information taught in technology-enhanced lectures in comparison to the traditional approach.