Application of online case based learning in pre-clinical medical education: a scoping review protocol

Rebecca Donkin; Heather Yule; Trina Fyfe

doi:10.25907/00071

Case-Based Learning (CBL) is a teaching approach that engages students as learners through active learning in small, collaborative groups to solve problems that resemble real-world examples (Gade & Chari, 2013). In medical education the specific scenarios and problems would be based on contextualised cases from clinical patients (Thistlethwaite et al., 2012). Participants build their knowledge and work together as a group to examine the case. This method is learner-centred and moves away from a didactic approach, with interaction between students being the primary focus for inquiry (McLean, 2016). Although there is disparity in the definition of CBL with similar yet distinctly different teaching methods such as problem based and team based learning (Hays, 2008), the teaching approach of CBL has been used in medical fields since 1912 (Sturdy, 2007). While CBL is not new, the delivery of CBL has manifested over time to include a hybrid of technology enabled learning with in-class design (Atwa, Gauci-Mansour, Thomson, & Hegazi, 2019; Nicklen, Keating, Paynter, Storr, & Maloney, 2016). The delivery of CBL utilising technology enabled learning has progressed in recent years. In particular it was considered a comparable learning experience to in-class CBL to address the challenges afforded by the COVID-19 pandemic due to the reduction in face-to-face classes and inability to teach in a clinical setting (Thibaut & Schroeder, 2020). Whilst online CBL may be considered a comparable learning experience to in-class CBL there is little information available on rate of uptake in medical education. Furthermore, there is paucity of literature that details the learning theories and outcomes of online CBL use in medical education. In an attempt to extend understanding in this area a proposal to conduct a scoping review to explore the evidence based literature that describes the use of online CBL application in medical education and how this literature describe outcomes, perceptions and the learning theories is proposed. A scoping review is an appropriate method (Lockwood, dos Santos, & Pap, 2019) to examine the academic and student perceptions of online CBL as it facilitates the synthesis of evidence to date by mapping methods, tools, reporting, and research limitations around how online CBL is perceived in pre-clinical medical education. This protocol will inform the scoping review and follows the framework provided by the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews). A checklist will be used as a systematic approach to map and report results of the search which complies with the Joanna Briggs Institute 2020 guide (Peters et al., 2020; Tricco et al., 2016). On the 28th May 2021 a preliminary search was conducted to identify any existing reviews on the specified topic (Appendix I). The search was conducted using the PubMed and Ovid MEDLINE databases using key words, for example “case based learning” AND “online” AND “medical education” in titles, abstracts and keywords of articles. PubMed identified 84 articles that were published on this topic, Ovid MEDLINE identified 60 articles. There were no scoping reviews identified in this search. The objective of this scoping review is to identify and describe the student and academic perceptions of online case based learning in pre-clinical medical education with specific research questions. Research questions 1. What are the frameworks and learning theories of online case based learning? 2. How has online case based learning been applied in pre-clinical medical education? 3. What is the student and academic perception and outcomes of online case based learning in pre-clinical medical education?

Application of online case based learning in pre-clinical medical education: a scoping review protocol

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