Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Feb 23;24(1):188.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05179-7.

Improving undergraduate education of occupational health and occupational medicine appling massive open online courses & problem-based learning

Rui Ding  1 , Han Cheng  2
Affiliations

Improving undergraduate education of occupational health and occupational medicine appling massive open online courses & problem-based learning

Rui Ding et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: The learning of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine in undergraduate college students in China has been hindered by various factors. This study aimed to explore the effects of the application of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) & Problem-based learning (PBL) in the learning of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine in undergraduate college students in China.

Methods: Students enrolled in 2017 and 2018 were categorized in the control group and study group, and received PBL learning and MOOC + PBL learning, respectively. The effects of learning were assessed by scores of final exam, satisfaction degree of students, and feedbacks.

Results: The mean score of the final exam was not significantly different between the two groups. However, the further comparison by levels of scores showed that the percentages of good and excellent were both significantly higher in the study group than control group. The overall satisfaction degree was significantly higher in the study group than control group. In addition, the scores of the 3 dimensions of satisfaction degree, i.e. learning preparation, learning process, and learning effect, were all significantly higher in the study group than control group. The feedbacks of the students showed that they thought MOOC + PBL learning could better improve the learning efficacy, despite a substantial proportion of students reported that MOOC + PBL learning more time-consuming.

Conclusions: The findings showed that the combination of MOOC and PBL in the learning of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine is an effective method capable of improving the learning efficacy in college students of Prophylactic Medicine. Further efforts are needed to optimize the MOOC platform to provide a friendlier interface.

Keywords: Learning efficacy; Massive Open Online courses; Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine; Problem-based learning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Procedures of the learning mode in the two groups
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Rui Ding Application Prospect of MOOC in Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine Education. Adv High Educ. 2023;7(25):125–7.
    1. Hui Xue H, Yuan G, Li J, Liu X, Zhang Comparison of team-based learning vs. lecture-based teaching with small group discussion in a master’s degree in nursing education course. Nurse Educ Today. 2021;105:105043. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.105043. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Li X, Lu W, Liu Y, Wang L. The exploration of application of virtual simulation in experiment classes of Occupational Health. Jiao Yu Xian Dai Hua. 2019;87:217–21.
    1. Mitroka JG, Harrington C, DellaVecchia MJ. A multiyear comparison of flipped- vs. lecture-based teaching on student success in a pharmaceutical science class. Currents Pharm Teach Learn. 2020;12(1):84–7. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2019.10.014. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chen F, Zhang Q, Lang S, Yu C, Cui X, Bai Z. Xinyu Zeng. Meta analysis of teaching effects of TCM in flipped and traditional classroom. Xi Bu Zhong Yi Yao. 2022; 35(5): 68–73.

LinkOut - more resources