Evaluationof Integrated Modular Teaching in Chinese Ophthalmology Trainee Courses

Abstract Background: Before receiving ophthalmology trainee courses in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre, the medical students of Sun Yat-sen University had finished two years of premedical education, following thesix years of medical courses including basic medical course, clinical medical courses, clerkship, and research training in medical school. Integrated modular teaching using different problem-based teaching methods in Ophthalmology was designed bythe teaching steering committee of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and satisfaction scales of the integrated modular teaching among the trainee students. Methods: A total of 100 medical students who was receiving ophthalmology trainee courses in Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre were enrolled, which were randomly allocated to 4 groups according to teaching arrangement, each of which contained 6 small groups.The trainee courses included several sections and multiple methods, such as "flipped classroom"section and team-based learning section. The pre-class test and post-class test were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated modular teaching, and participants satisfaction survey questionnaire was collected to investigate the satisfaction among the participants.Results: Comparing with the first-day-test scores, the last-day-test score was significantly improved in total (t=3.288, P=0.001) in a pair t test. There was no significant difference of the last-day-test scores (F=1.163, P=0.328) in an ANOVA test among the four groups, even when the final grade of ophthalmology before entering the trainee courses was significantly different, and a significant difference of the first-day-test scores was found (F=7.614, P=0.000) among the four groups. Since the pre-class knowledge of ophthalmology could be evaluated by the final grade of ophthalmology before entering the trainee courses and the first-day-test scores, these results just showed us that the integrated modular teaching using in trainee courseswas effective and useful. There were 19 students who had an outstanding improvement with ranking ahead of more than 10 in all the participants in the last-day-test, which did not have higher average scores for daily performance than other students (t=0.469, P=0.654). According to the participant satisfaction questionnaires, these innovative teaching methods were considered effective and popular.Conclusions:Integrated modular teaching was effective and popular to the medical college students in ophthalmology trainee courses.