UK medical students rate bedside teaching above online seminars

Medical students at six UK schools rated bedside teaching and in-person seminars as more educationally useful than online seminars, while 87.2% of participants said they preferred a combined approach. In the multicentre cross-sectional survey, bedside teaching received the highest mean utility score at 8.58 out of 10. In-person seminars followed at 8.31, simulation-based teaching at 8.13 and online seminars at 3.86.

The study, conducted between November 2024 and April 2025, surveyed 172 medical students across six UK medical schools. Researchers used a 44-item questionnaire to assess students’ attitudes toward online and in-person lectures and seminars, simulation-based teaching and bedside teaching. The instrument combined Likert scales, single-best-answer items and ratings of educational utility on a 1–10 scale.

Students recognized one clear advantage of online teaching: flexibility. At the same time, online delivery was associated with lower motivation and engagement. A perceived loss of peer interaction during online learning was also associated with lower motivation and engagement, with the relationship reaching statistical significance at p less than 0.05. These findings identify weaker peer interaction as a feature that students may connect with reduced engagement, but the cross-sectional design cannot establish that it caused the lower ratings.

Responses differed by stage of training. Clinical-year students gave online teaching more positive ratings than preclinical students. The survey also found that students who perceived poorer access to external online learning resources assigned higher utility to institution-delivered online teaching. Together, the subgroup results show that preferences for online education varied with training stage and students’ perceived access to learning resources.

Simulation-based and bedside teaching were both rated highly, but students associated them with different forms of skill development. Simulation was associated with improved procedural confidence. Bedside teaching was perceived as better suited to developing history-taking, physical examination and professional skills. The survey therefore suggests that students did not view these formats as interchangeable: they reported distinct perceived strengths for each.

The strongest overall preference was for a deliberately blended educational approach. Among the 172 respondents, 87.2% favored combining teaching formats rather than relying on a single modality. The questionnaire’s range of response types allowed the researchers to compare general attitudes, forced choices and direct utility ratings, while the highest scores were recorded for formats involving bedside contact, simulation or in-person seminars.

The study is designed to measure perceptions rather than learning outcomes. It was cross-sectional, included six UK institutions and depended on students’ self-reported assessments of educational value, motivation and engagement. It did not experimentally compare curricula or directly measure changes in knowledge, competence or clinical performance. The results therefore should not be interpreted as proof that one teaching format produces better educational outcomes than another.

Within those limits, the findings provide a detailed account of how this group of students viewed four major elements of medical training. Online teaching was valued for accessibility and flexibility but received lower utility ratings, while in-person seminars, simulation and bedside teaching were rated more favorably for different perceived purposes. The authors concluded that the results support blended models combining online access with interactive, experiential and clinical teaching, while the survey evidence itself establishes reported preferences and associations rather than causal effects.

Subject of Research: A cross-sectional study of UK medical students’ perceptions of four teaching modalities.

Article Title: Medical students’ perceptions of online, in-person, simulation-based and bedside teaching: a multicentre cross-sectional study

Article References: Kurowski-Ford, A., Savill, J., Sharman, P., & Siddhi, P. (2026). Medical students’ perceptions of online, in-person, simulation-based and bedside teaching: a multicentre cross-sectional study. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10398-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10398-1

Keywords: medical education, blended learning, bedside teaching, simulation training, online learning, student engagement, clinical skills, medical curricula, UK medical schools, Medical, students, perceptions