Abstract Background Aimed to corroborate students' and faculty's experiences with e-learning during the current pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to June 2020. Seven surveys were distributed electronically to all undergraduate students and the faculty (4 to students and 3 to teachers) at the Southern Medical University (China). Descriptive statistics and t-tests were used to analyze the data. Statistical significance was set at p < .05. Results Most students had some exposure to e-learning prior to the all e-learning regiment, contrasted with close to 90% of teachers having no or very limited experience. Students' perceptions of the most helpful e-learning activities did not change significantly overall (Week 3 vs. Week 9). Approaching 60% of students (Week 9) did find online discussion/Q&A/forum helpful, an increase from less than 30% (Week 3). Among teachers, gaps emerged (Week 9) between e-teaching activities used and their perceived effectiveness. Despite pre-recorded lectures being the most frequently used method, the least gap was associated with live-stream lectures—the least used. Over time, teacher's perceived effectiveness of e-teaching vs. in-person teaching did not differ significantly overall. When the results among students (Week 7) and teachers (Week 9) were corroborated, a slightly higher percentage of teachers viewed online teaching to be less effective than in-person teaching and a slightly higher percentage of teachers viewed online teaching as far less effective. For preferred learning modes after the resumption of in-person learning, students' preferences did not differ significantly overall (Week 3 vs. week 9). Surveys conducted in Week 9 found that a slightly higher percentage of students (~ 70%) than teachers (~ 60%) preferred some forms of hybrid learning and a lower percentage of students preferred face-to-face learning only. Approximately three quarters of teachers responded that at least 50% of course materials could be mastered by students on their own. Conclusions Overall, the perceived effectiveness of e-learning among students and teachers has not changed significantly over time. Nor have students' preferences shifted significantly for various learning modes after the in-person learning resumed. However, informative directional trends have emerged. Our research illustrates empirically the need to corroborate students' and instructors' experiences over time to inform more holistic improvements of e-learning.

BACKGROUND:Flipped classroom has received much attention during the last few years in China, but inconsistent conclusions are made about the effectiveness this approach in health professions education. This review examined the findings of controlled studies published in Chinese in order to summarize the effects of the flipped classroom methodology. These studies focused specifically on undergraduate level of health professions students.METHODS:A literature search was conducted using China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform in June 2019. No date restrictions were used. Peer-reviewed papers were reviewed and experimental studies were included if the study compared student outcomes using flipped classroom method versus traditional lectures. The revised version of the Kirkpatrick's model was applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach.RESULTS:In total, 934 articles were obtained. Among them, 235 articles were full text reviewed and 59 met the inclusion criteria. Most of the student agreed that flipped classroom strategy was very helpful improving their self-learning ability, problem solving ability, teamwork, and communication skills, but reported increased workload and less-efficiency compared with traditional lectures. However, the majority of studies (n = 52) showed positive findings of the flipped classroom on changes in knowledge and skills, and 3 in negative. Among these 59 studies, there was little evidence of changes in behavior, organizational practice and patient outcome.CONCLUSIONS:Better design with reduced content should be considered for instructors to promote learning effectiveness. Long-term effects of flipped classroom should be considered in future studies.

Over the past decades, policymakers have developed numerous financial aid policies and programs with the goal of promoting college access and equity. However, access to American higher education is unduly limited by the complex interplay of inadequate preparation, lack of information about college opportunities, and persistent financial barriers (1). This study analyzes the restricted-use data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88/2000) to investigate how financial aid influence four-year college enrollment among academically qualified students, and examined if this relationship varied across students with different social background. The findings demonstrate that low-income and middle-income college-qualified students tend to respond more to loans and work-study than grants.