Flipped Classroom As a Novel Teaching Tool for Practical Parasitology

Background: Flipped classroom (FC) is a novel pedagogical approach that reverses the traditional classroom and homework system in which self-directed learning (SDL) was done at home. The latter saves the time of the class for discussions and critical thinking to attain higher cognition levels of Bloom`s taxonomy. Practical Parasitology needs careful understanding, application, and evaluation of topics in a limited time. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate FC as a novel teaching and learning tool for practical Parasitology. Subjects and Methods: This study adopted a quantitative research methodology. We addressed the 3rd year medical students in the academic year 2021/2022 at the College of Medicine, University of Bisha, KSA, and their achievement was compared with that of batch 2020/2021. A pre-class illustrative video about the identification of blood parasites was sent to the students through the Learning Management Systems (LMS); i.e., blackboard, and a formative exam was done through google docs. Mini-lecture and focus group discussions were held at the time of the class. Post-class students` satisfaction was evaluated through an online self-administered questionnaire using google docs in addition to evaluation of their marks in the final course exam questions touching that topic. Results: The FC proved to be a new tool for most of the students who considered it an easy implementation for the understanding of practical Parasitology. For the students, being engaged, able to discuss, and deal with new technologies throughout the session, supported their competencies as medical students. The overall shortage of time was the main challenge. Overall, there was a significant improvement in students' achievements after the FC. Conclusion: Flipped classroom could be considered a novel learning tool for practical Parasitology that merges the traditional and student-centered approaches, fosters the students` engagement and enhances their learning with high satisfaction reported by the students.