"Flipped classroom"-A future concept for student teaching in ophthalmology?

Background "Flipped classroom" is a didactic teaching concept in which learning contents are prepared by self-study with arranged tools before the classroom session. The concept offers the advantage of a uniform knowledge base for the students at the beginning of the course and also the advantage of a greater theoretical knowledge, which creates more opportunities for practical exercises, application and consolidation in the subsequent joint teaching units. This study describes the establishment and application of such a model in student teaching in ophthalmology and analyzes the student's evaluation. Methodology For the winter term 2018/2019, a new teaching module was designed and established in a cooperation between the department of ophthalmology and the Institute for Education and Study Affairs (IfAS) at the medical faculty of the University of Munster. A uniform training of the lecturers as well as a preparation of the students for the restructuring took place. After the course the evaluation of the students was recorded and evaluated using a standardized online evaluation. Results Between the winter semester 2018/2019 and the winter semester 2019/2020, an average of 112.3 +/- 4.0 students were taught with the "flipped classroom" model. Of these 93.7% were able to give an assessment. In the previous semesters with the old teaching concept (summer semester 2015 to summer semester 2018), the average number of students was 115.4 +/- 15.1 with an assessment rate of 93.3%. The new teaching concept achieved on average a better assessment than the old module. Conclusion With a "flipped classroom" space and flexibility can be generated for a more individual course preparation and at the same time a higher practical part. Further studies are needed to analyze whether this also enables a sustainable transfer of knowledge.