Why medical students prefer hybrid classroom over online classroom for clinical case presentation on infectious disease? A qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: With Malaysia beginning its transitional phase into COVID-19 endemic phase on 1 April 2022, hybrid teaching which combines online and face to face teaching became a popular teaching method for many learning institutions. UniKL RCMP has introduced hybrid classroom where the lecturer and some students are physically present in the classroom while other students are online via video conferencing system during the same teaching session. Objective(s) To explore UniKL RCMP medical students' preference in using hybrid classroom versus online classroom for clinical case presentation on infectious disease during Year 4 Primary Care Medicine module. Material(s) and Method(s) A total of 12 medical students from different subgroups who undergone Year 4 Primary Care Medicine module were invited to the focus group discussions at the end of the module. Discussion topics were their experience, limitation and preference of hybrid versus online classroom method. All students went through three clinical case presentations, one of which was on infectious disease using hybrid classroom method and five other clinical case presentations using online method. Result(s) and Conclusion(s) All 12 students preferred hybrid over online classroom because they felt that learning was more effective in the hybrid classroom. Thematic analysis showed benefits of hybrid classroom were easier to understand and visualise the case, encouraged to ask questions, easier to interact with friends and less environmental distraction. Limitation of hybrid classroom was occasional technical difficulty especially for online students to hear physical classroom students and for online students to see notes written on the physical classroom's whiteboard. Hybrid classroom provided medical students with a better learning environment than online classroom for clinical case presentation especially on infectious disease. Improvement in technical setup will enhance the students' learning experience with hybrid classroom.