Pharmacy students' performance and perceptions in a flipped teaching pilot on cardiac arrhythmias

Objective. To implement the flipped teaching method in a 3-class pilot on cardiac arrhythmias and to assess the impact of the intervention on academic performance and student perceptions. Design. An intervention group of 101 first-year pharmacy students, who took the class with the flipped teaching method, were supplied with prerecorded lectures prior to their 3 classes (1 class in each of the following subjects: basic sciences, pharmacology, and therapeutics) on cardiac arrhythmias. Class time was focused on active-learning and case-based exercises. Students then took a final examination that included questions on cardiac arrhythmias. The examination scores of the intervention group were compared to scores of the Spring 2011 control group of 105 first-year students who took the class with traditional teaching methods. An online survey was conducted to assess student feedback from the intervention group. Assessment. The mean examination scores of the intervention group were significantly higher than the mean examination scores of the control group for the cardiac arrhythmia classes in pharmacology (with 89.6 ± 2.0% vs 56.8 ± 2.2%, respectively) and therapeutics (89.2 ± 1.4% vs 73.7 ± 2.1%, respectively). The survey indicated higher student satisfaction for flipped classes with highly rated learning objectives, recordings, and in-class activities. Conclusion. Use of the flipped teaching method in a 3-class pilot on cardiac arrhythmias improved examination scores for 2 of the 3 classes (pharmacology and therapeutics). Student satisfaction was influenced by the quality of the learning objectives, prerecorded lectures, and inclass active-learning activities.