Background
The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed great threat to the global population’s health and nearly every medical school throughout the world suspended classes as a precaution against the virus. The aim of this research is to explore a more advanced online teaching and learning pattern for medical school in the future especially during a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Methods
This is a descriptive study conducted in a medical school. We applied a new blended teaching model, that is, online TBL via 5G network (hereinafter referred as blended teaching model) before the outbreak and when universities responded to the COVID-19 outbreak by closing campuses, they shifted to home-based online learning which is not based on TBL via other prevalent forms of wireless internet connection(hereinafter referred as traditional online teaching model). Fifty fourth-year medical students receiving the “5 + 3” pattern courses regarding internal medicine were enrolled in the study. A five-point Likert scale questionnaire that contains 20 items was used to compare the effect of the two kinds of teaching patterns. It evaluated the indicators of core competencies of students including professionalism, attitude towards learning, knowledge and learning skills, teamwork skills, motivation in learning, adaptability and acceptance of the courses and network environment.
Results
According to the descriptive statistical analysis of the first part of the questionnaire (question 1–16), the average score of adaptability and acceptance of the courses is 2.60 less than 3, indicating that students are more adapted to traditional online teaching model; the average score of the rest of the questions is greater than 3, indicating that blended teaching model is superior to traditional online teaching model. The number of male students who are inclined to blended teaching model is 0.13 times as much as that of female students (95%CI:0.028 ~ 0.602, p = 0.009).
Conclusion
Blended teaching model makes up for some deficiencies of the traditional online teaching methods. For instance, it can monitor students’ learning efficiency and test their real-time learning effectiveness; 5G network meets the requirement of multiple user access in the online TBL. It is a more advanced online teaching and learning pattern for medical school and may be a more suitable method during PHEIC in the future. However, as the students can hardly quickly adapt to this new model, teachers should change their ideas to form a "student-centered" teaching concept, acquire more knowledge of online teaching, and get fully prepared for online TBL before class to ensure a better study experience.