Flipped Classroom in times of COVID-19

Background Due to the corona pandemic the question arose of how a flipped classroom in the ENT can be designed without the presence of students. In addition, it was important to consider which competencies could and should be achieved in this way Methods To maintain the contact-reducing requirements, a completely digital teaching format was developed. The learning objectives were first revised and adapted to the new learning concept. An e-learning tool was developed to transform the cognitive content in the pre-class phase. The seminars of the in-class phase were redesigned and held online as a zoom conference. The students (n = 133) were asked to evaluate the digital concept using a short questionnaire. Results Due to the elimination of the face-to-face events and thus the practical exercises, the learning objectives could be achieved only at competence level 2 in the COVID-19 semester 2020. 71% of the students rated the digital implementation of the seminar as good or very good and 64% of the students saw a high to very high added value of the e-learning tool compared to working through a textbook. By completing the e-learning course, the vast majority of students (62%) were able to follow the seminar better and to consolidate their knowledge. Only 21% of the students prefered a lecture to the online seminar with prior e-learning. Conclusion The newly designed online seminars in connection with the e-learning tool is an appropriate teaching format, which is very well accepted by the students, for medical education in ENT. This teaching format implements the contact-reducing requirements. However, there are limitations with regard to achieving higher levels of competence, especially concerning psychomotor learning objectives, which have to be taken into consideration.