Using “Xuexi Tong Platform”as the Major Approach to Explore of Teaching Models of “Histology and Embryology”and “Pathology” in the Time of COVID-19 (Preprint)
BACKGROUND The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic has suddenly swept the world, and online courses have completely replaced offline courses. This is a new type of teaching practice in China and even the world,which needs our exploration and research. “Histology and Embryology” and “Pathology” are both basic medical morphology disciplines. Thus, the previous teaching mode is no longer suitable for teaching in this special period. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this research is to explore a new teaching mode of “Histology and Embryology” and “Pathology”under the circumstances of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, and to study its application effects. METHODS From March to July 2020, our teaching team conducted research on 512 students in 10 classes of Grade 2019 undergraduate clinical medicine students who study “Histology and Embryology” and Grade 2018 undergraduate clinical medicine students who study “Pathology”, applying the “Internet + education” approach. The teaching team adopted a new teaching mode involving diverse online teaching methods, carefully designed and selected teaching contents, and various teaching activities, which included: 1. New flipped classroom; 2. Screen-to-screen experimental teaching; 3. Drawing competitions; 4. A writing activity themed “The You I Know-During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic”. When the teaching was about to end, the “Questionnaire Star” is used to make investigation about the feedback of students on the theoretical teaching mode and the use of the experimental platform. RESULTS Students accepted “Seven-in-One” teaching mode of “video + materials + chapter tests + interaction + homework + live broadcast + case analysis/discussion”. The guidance of online learning which integrated six online applications namely “Xuexi Tong Platform + Tencent Conference Live + Chinese University MOOC/school online MOOC + medical morphology digital teaching platform + WeChat/QQ platform + questionnaire star survey” was also well received by students. The teaching team received 244 and 246 valid questionnaires for the two grades respectively, and the number of students’with satisfaction response reached 71.28%. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that this teaching mode, which proved feasible and acceptable during the epidemic, laid a solid foundation for future online and offline hybrid teaching.