To boost active learning in undergraduate students, they were given the task of preparing blogs on topics of clinical biochemistry. This "experiment" lasted for 12 teaching-semesters (from 2008 to 2013), and included a survey on the blogs' usefulness at the end of each semester. The survey (applied in the 2008-2010 period) used a Likert-like questionnaire with eight questions and a 1-to-6 scale, from "totally disagree" to "fully agree." Answers of 428 students were analyzed and indicated overall approval of the blog activity: 86% and 35% of the responses scored 4-to-6 and 6, respectively. Considering the survey results, the high grades obtained by students on their blogs (averaging 8.3 in 2008-2010), and the significant increase in average grades of the clinical biochemistry exam after the beginning of the blog system (from 5.5 in 2007 to 6.4 in 2008-2010), we concluded that blogging activity on biochemistry is a promising tool for boosting active learning. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(3):205-215, 2017.
Keywords: Education 2.0; active learning; medicine; metabolism; nutrition.
© 2016 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.