Planning, Implementation and Evaluation of Active Learning- Teaching Methods in Inverted Classroom,Peer Learning and Virtual Education among Students in the School of Allied Medical Sciences

Introduction: Education in the field of medical sciences requires using modern learning- teaching methods to enable students to be active in this process and to cultivate creative and thoughtful students. The aim of this study was to design, implement and evaluate active learning- teaching methods in the form of flipped classroom, peer learning and virtual education among paramedical students. Methods: This is an applied, descriptive and cross -sectional study that was conducted on all academic departments of the Allied School of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 7 stages since 2017 to 2019. The statistical population included 712 students, of which 527 people participated in the study by the census. A self-administered questionnaire was designed and implemented to evaluate each of the teaching-learning methods (i.e., inverted classroom (201 students), peer learning (70 students), and virtual education (256 students)). The validity and reliability of these questionnaires was confirmed respectively by content validity and using Cronbach's alpha test. To analyze data, descriptive statistical methods including mean and standard deviation were used through SPSS. Result: Based on results, out of 201 responding students in the inverted classroom, 82.9% (167 people) and out of 70 respondents in the peer group learning method, 63.7% (45 people) preferred these methods to traditional and lecture methods. Out of 256 people in the virtual method, 54.7% (140 people) preferred the virtual method to the face- to- face method. It should also be noted that the average of all items showed that in the inverted method, out of 201 people, 80.2% (161 people) agreed, out of 70 people in the learning method in the peer group, 70% (49 people) agreed and in the virtual education method out of 256 people, 56.9% (146 people) agreed with this course. Conclusion: Based on findings, it can be concluded that among the students participating in this study, the majority of students preferred the inverted classroom teaching method and peer group learning to other methods such as lecturing and also more than half of students agreed with the virtual education versus face- to- face.