Exploring Academic Performance of Medical Students in an Integrated Hybrid Curriculum by Gender

DeLoris Wenzel Hesse; Lynn M Ramsey; Lia Pierson Bruner; Claudia S Vega-Castillo; Dina Teshager; Janette R Hill; Mary T Bond; Edwin V Sperr Jr; Amy Baldwin; Amy E Medlock

doi:10.1007/s40670-023-01743-w

Exploring Academic Performance of Medical Students in an Integrated Hybrid Curriculum by Gender

Med Sci Educ. 2023 Feb 7;33(2):353-357. doi: 10.1007/s40670-023-01743-w. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

DeLoris Wenzel Hesse^{1

2}, Lynn M Ramsey¹, Lia Pierson Bruner^{1

3}, Claudia S Vega-Castillo¹, Dina Teshager¹, Janette R Hill⁴, Mary T Bond^{1

5}, Edwin V Sperr Jr¹, Amy Baldwin^{1

6}, Amy E Medlock^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership, Athens, GA USA.
² Department of Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA.
³ Department of Family and Community Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, GA USA.
⁴ College of Education, Learning, Design, & Technology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine: General Internal Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, GA USA.
⁶ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, GA USA.
⁷ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA USA.

Abstract

Gender gaps in academic performance have been reported at a variety of educational levels including several national standardized exams for medical education, with men scoring higher than women. These gaps potentially impact medical school acceptance and residency matching and may be influenced by curricular design. Performance data for our 4-year integrated hybrid curriculum, which features a large proportion of active learning, revealed a gender gap with men performing better early in the curriculum and on the first national standardized exam. This gap in performance almost entirely disappeared for years 2-4 of the curriculum and the second national standardized exam.

Keywords: Evaluation; Gender gap; Integrated; Medicine; Summative assessment; Undergraduate.