Delivering midwifery concepts to undergraduate nursing students: a comparison study of the online flipped learning with the traditional in-class pedagogy

Abstract

The 2020 pandemic offered an exceptional opportunity for a “natural experimentation” to compare the effectiveness of teaching the midwifery course to the nursing students in flipped learning online model with the traditional classroom teaching. Course data were retrieved and analyzed using appropriate statistical techniques. Students' achievement scores in the flipped learning online model were statistically significantly higher than those in traditional model (178.62 vs. 171.96; P = .042). The difference in the course evaluation scores between the two models did not reach the level of statistical significance (4.21 vs. 4.31, P > .05). The flipped learning model was ranked lower for the appropriateness of learning time and workload outside the class. The lower ranking could be confounded by students’ mental health and frustration due to confinements to their dormitory rooms and isolation from their peers. More research must be conducted to discern the best didactic technique for nursing students.