Abstract / Description of output
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the delivery of medical education across the UK, with the majority of face-to-face teaching cancelled during the first wave, and medical schools consequently making varied adaptations to education delivery. To identify and share effective adaptations, we conducted a cross-sectional, online survey (COVID Med-Ed) between 20th May and 31st August 2020 which divided undergraduate teaching by GMC “Outcomes for Graduates”. This was distributed to students at UK-registered medical schools. Students were asked to describe the changes in delivery of each segment of their course, and their satisfaction with these changes.
There were 1829 responses from 38 medical schools (~5% of the overall cohort). 74% of students rated their teaching experience as “fair” or better, though clinical students were 10% more likely to report negative experiences than pre-clinical students. This finding was consistent amongst all universities, reflecting the uniform impact of the pandemic across the UK (Supplement).
62% of courses were converted online, with 20% being cancelled, though “GMC Skills” teaching featured greater cancellation (34%), suggesting increased difficulty in replicating skills-based teaching models online. However, when adjusted for cancellation, communication and diagnostic skills training did not perform significantly lower than non-skills teaching, demonstrating the possibility for successful conversion to the online platform. Experiences with online teaching were overall positive, though “Practical Skills and Procedures” teaching was received less favourably than other teaching, potentially highlighting the need for further studies on optimising remote practical skills learning.
Within online teaching, the most adopted modalities were lectures (78%) small-group tutorials (47%) and cases/questions (42.6%). Students were most satisfied with small-group tutorials over other modalities in isolation. This is likely due to small-group tutorials possessing more interactive elements, with teaching conducted in a form more supported by adult learning theories (Graffam 2007). However, students were also significantly more satisfied when multimodal (‘blended e-learning’) approaches were employed (Supplement).
Overall, medical students were satisfied that the teaching modifications applied during the pandemic still met GMC learning outcomes, even for teaching that was more challenging to convert online (skills-based teaching). Online practical skills teaching posed a challenge, though applications of simulation and blended learning is a potential avenue for improvement (Lehmann et al. 2015). Furthermore, multimodal approaches should be encouraged to maintain satisfaction, particularly the incorporation of small-group tutorials.
There were 1829 responses from 38 medical schools (~5% of the overall cohort). 74% of students rated their teaching experience as “fair” or better, though clinical students were 10% more likely to report negative experiences than pre-clinical students. This finding was consistent amongst all universities, reflecting the uniform impact of the pandemic across the UK (Supplement).
62% of courses were converted online, with 20% being cancelled, though “GMC Skills” teaching featured greater cancellation (34%), suggesting increased difficulty in replicating skills-based teaching models online. However, when adjusted for cancellation, communication and diagnostic skills training did not perform significantly lower than non-skills teaching, demonstrating the possibility for successful conversion to the online platform. Experiences with online teaching were overall positive, though “Practical Skills and Procedures” teaching was received less favourably than other teaching, potentially highlighting the need for further studies on optimising remote practical skills learning.
Within online teaching, the most adopted modalities were lectures (78%) small-group tutorials (47%) and cases/questions (42.6%). Students were most satisfied with small-group tutorials over other modalities in isolation. This is likely due to small-group tutorials possessing more interactive elements, with teaching conducted in a form more supported by adult learning theories (Graffam 2007). However, students were also significantly more satisfied when multimodal (‘blended e-learning’) approaches were employed (Supplement).
Overall, medical students were satisfied that the teaching modifications applied during the pandemic still met GMC learning outcomes, even for teaching that was more challenging to convert online (skills-based teaching). Online practical skills teaching posed a challenge, though applications of simulation and blended learning is a potential avenue for improvement (Lehmann et al. 2015). Furthermore, multimodal approaches should be encouraged to maintain satisfaction, particularly the incorporation of small-group tutorials.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Medical Teacher |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Aug 2021 |