Blended teaching of medical ethics during COVID-19: practice and reflection

Abstract Background With the advancement of information technology, teachers have become able to overcome the limitations of time and room capacity by carrying out teaching activities online. This practice, however, also presents new challenges. The present study explores how to fully capitalize on the advantages of online and offline teaching and improve the quality and impact of the teaching delivered. This article presents an analysis of the planning, implementation, evaluation, and reflection process of reforming the Fujian Medical University (FJMU) medical ethics course. Methods After early attempts using the Small Private Online Course (SPOC) and flipped classroom formats, this paper focuses on the comprehensive active implementation of blended teaching practice. In terms of teaching practice, this research makes targeted improvements to overcome the known shortcomings of SPOCs and flipped classrooms, including the significant preparatory workload and lacking enthusiasm for classroom participation, by redesigning the course and evaluation method and changing the role of the teacher in blended teaching. Subsequently, the study used a stratified sampling method to select 20 students enrolled in the clinical medicine course at Fujian Medical University (FJMU). Their course experience was investigated using a semi-structured interview. Interview content related to evaluating teaching effect was extracted and encoded for subsequent qualitative analysis. Results A qualitative analysis of the student evaluation of blended teaching as implemented on the medical ethics course showed that the main factors influencing student engagement are the method of assigning tasks and that of testing learning outcomes. Student participation in class is influenced by the richness of the curriculum resources available and the role played by the teacher. Conclusion This research presents a discussion of blended teaching and suggests improvements that can be made to address low student engagement and poor classroom participation. This round of blended teaching was shown to improve learning autonomy and classroom participation and to support students in the development of their clinical abilities and higher-order thinking skills. These findings provide a reference for the implementation of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.