When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down college campuses, higher education administrators accelerated their use of virtual learning technologies. As students returned to in-person learning, faculty and deans noticed that lecture attendance had dropped. This was especially true in medical schools, where, according to a 2023 article for NPR’s “Shots”, lecture attendance during the pre-clerkship years was usually low to begin with. Now that students had regular access to recordings of lectures, why turn up to class?
In-person education is still critical to educating clinicians, but today’s students clearly need something else. That something may just be the “flipped classroom,” formally described for the first time by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams in 2012. Implemented correctly, flipped classrooms can reignite student engagement and foster deeper learning. For university leaders, understanding and supporting this pedagogical transformation is vital to staying at the forefront of medical education.
In professional healthcare education, students must not only absorb vast amounts of knowledge but also apply it critically in dynamic environments. Traditional, lecture-based learning models don’t really support either of these goals. In “The Flipped Classroom: Abandon the Sage on the Stage, and Embrace the Guide on the Side,” an article for the American College of Surgeons’ journal Resources in Surgical Education, Dr. Catherine E. Lewis of UCLA cites evidence that students typically begin losing focus on a lecture after 10 minutes, and that most are only able to recall about 20 percent of material covered during that lecture immediately afterward.
The flipped classroom inverts this conventional teaching model. Instead of delivering foundational materials through in-class lectures that students passively consume, they’re instead provided to students before class in the form of videos, readings, or interactive modules. Class time is then repurposed for active learning activities, such as case-based discussions, group problem-solving, simulations, or hands-on practice.
Active learning lies at the heart of the flipped classroom. For example, a medical class might focus on diagnosing a simulated patient’s condition during class, leveraging prior study of pathophysiology from online videos and conventional texts. This approach moves students from passive recipients of knowledge to active participants in their education, challenging them to think critically and apply concepts in practice.
Flipped classrooms also promote the development of collaboration skills alongside clinical knowledge. Healthcare is inherently collaborative and problem focused. By incorporating team-based learning and problem-solving exercises, the flipped classroom helps students develop communication, leadership, and decision-making skills essential for interdisciplinary teamwork in their future careers.
Research shows that medical students who learn in flipped classrooms are actually more likely to demonstrate signs of deeper learning. A 2024 meta-analysis of 12 studies that examined flipped classrooms in clinical education, published online in Frontiers in Education, reported that students in flipped classrooms had better test scores and skill scores than students in traditional classrooms. A 2024 study in BMC Medical Educationthat focused on nursing students found that “that the flipped classroom model is conducive to improving learning outcomes and promoting the effective integration of theory and practice.”
As an added bonus? A 2019 study suggests that students who learn in flipped classrooms report increased satisfaction with their learning experiences compared to students in traditional lectures.
Flipping your classrooms, of course, isn’t simple, as a 2022 meta-analysis of 88 studies by Dutch researchers showed. Adopting the flipped classroom model may require investments in faculty training, technology, and curriculum redesign. Faculty need guidance on creating high-quality pre-class materials and facilitating in-class activities effectively. Furthermore, access to online platforms and simulation tools is essential to support this model.
However, these challenges are outweighed by the long-term benefits. In addition to evidence that learning outcomes are improved in flipped classrooms, supporting this learning model can send a clear message that your institution is committed to innovative, student-centered education. Moreover, this approach aligns with accreditation standards that emphasize competency-based learning and outcomes assessment.
At Tiber Health, we’ve helped implement flipped classroom learning for our Master of Science in Medical Sciences, a one-year pre-medical master’s degree curriculum. We’ve also found ways to build on the flipped classroom model’s reliance on technology to add even more value. In addition to utilizing a virtual learning environment for class pre-work, we also leverage our proprietary analytics platform to generate real-time insights into student performance.
These insights can be used to keep students motivated, inform faculty about where to intervene, and demonstrate to medical school admissions committees that our graduates are ready for the rigors of medical school. Now is the time to flip the script on traditional teaching and empower the next generation of healthcare professionals. If you’re interested in joining us as a university partner for the MSMS, contact Tiber Health today.