Study participants
Undergraduates who entered the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University for internship were recruited in June 2021, then randomly divided into summer term and fall term for internship. These students came from six different universities and were informed that there would be a pre- and post-survey conducted to self-rate their levels of competency, perception, expectation and satisfaction with the epidemiological courses, as well as a test after completion of the class to assess the course effectiveness.A total of 75 medical students participated in the designed course, the self-evaluation and the follow-up test. Forty-one students who began their internship in the summer term were divided into the experimental group (taking theoretical courses integrated with a practical course), and 34 students who began their internship in the autumn term were assigned to the control group, and thus only took the theoretical courses. All the available data collected from the 75 interns were included in the analysis.