Resumen de Design of a Semester-Long Case-Based Active Learning Curriculum for Medical Biochemistry Courses During COVID-19
Dylan Thibaut, Kersten T. Schroeder
COVID-19 posed new challenges to undergraduate medical biochemistry instructors, providing an opportunity of exploring novel approaches online through methods such as case-based learning curriculum. In this study, an entire curriculum was created for medical biochemistry teaching online using case-based learning including the standards, time for lessons, cases, and methods behind teaching in an online format. To evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum, student case study question results, grades on exams, and perception were analyzed. The results show that 40 students enrolled in the case-based learning curriculum had an average final exam score of 10.33% (95% CI [3.539, 17.112], p = 0.004) higher compared to the traditional curriculum students (d = 0.861, 95% CI [0.269, 1.444]). No significant difference was found between exam scores on any other exam in the course. Due to the final exam being a cumulative exam, the results suggest that the case-based learning curriculum improved student retention of information long-term but had no discernible effect on individual exams. This study provides all the tools necessary for instructors to immediately use a medical biochemistry case-based learning curriculum supported by research without the necessary time investment of creating their own cases from scratch.
