Replicating Anatomical Teaching Specimens using 3D Modelling Embedded within a Multimodal E-Learning Course: A Pre/Post Study Exploring the Impact on Medical Education during COVID-19 (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Stunden ◽  
Sima Zakani ◽  
Avery Martin ◽  
Shreya Moodley ◽  
John Jacob

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had significant effects on anatomy education. During the pandemic, students have had no access to cadavers, which has been the principal way of learning anatomy. We created and tested a customized congenital heart disease e-learning course for medical students that contained interactive 3D models of anonymized pediatric congenital heart defects. OBJECTIVE To assess if a multimodal e-learning course contributed to learning outcomes in a cohort of first year undergraduate medical students study congenital heart diseases. Secondarily, we assess student attitudes and experiences associated with multimodal e-learning. METHODS The pre/post study design involved 290 first year undergraduate medical students. Recruitment was conducted through the course instructors. Data were collected before using the course and after using the course. The primary outcome was knowledge acquisition (test scores). The secondary outcome included attitudes and experiences, as well as time to complete the modules, and browser metadata. RESULTS A total of 141 students were included in the final analysis (N=141). Students’ knowledge significantly improved by an average of 44.6% when using the course (SD 1.73, Z = -10.287, p < 0.001). 88.26% of students were highly motivated to learn with the course and 93.5% of students reported positive experiences with the course. There was a strong correlation between attitudes and experiences, which was statistically significant (rs = 0.687, p<0.001, N = 122). There were no relationships found between change test scores and attitudes or experiences (p>0.05). Students most frequently completed the e-learning course with Chrome (77.3%), and on Apple MacOS (61.0%) or Windows 10 (36.9%). Most students had devices with high-definition screens (83.0%). Most students (58.9%) completed the course in under 3 hours. CONCLUSIONS Multi-modal e-learning could be a viable solution to improving learning outcomes and experiences for undergraduate medical students, who do not have access to cadavers. Future research should focus on validating long-term learning outcomes. CLINICALTRIAL n/a

Author(s):  
Shikha Gautam ◽  
Salamah Parveen Imteyaz ◽  
Mohammed Iqbal Alam

Introduction: The coronavirus pandemic has involved nearly all the countries of the world. The lockdowns and closure of educational institutes to reduce the risk of disease transmission has brought a change in the medium of teaching as most educational institutes have moved to the online mode. There is a widespread increase in stress as the number of cases and mortality associated with Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) continue each day. Aim: To assess the stress status of first year undergraduate medical students in reference to the coronavirus pandemic and the perception of first year undergraduate medical students in reference to the E-learning being carried out during the coronavirus pandemic. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional web-based online survey that was conducted using a questionnaire in August 2020 at Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, New Delhi, India. The questionnaire was prepared and reviewed by the involved faculty members of the project and it was approved by a faculty from Department of Psychiatry. Reliability of questionnaire was measured using Cronbach’s alpha (0.89). A questionnaire with 20 questions was administered via Google forms to all 100 students of first year MBBS course. Some of the questions in the questionnaire were framed to assess the stress status of the students; some were designed to study students’ perception of E-learning. Data was represented as the percentage distribution of response for each question. Results: Ninety five responses were received, after accounting for exclusion factors; data was compiled for 91 respondents. Out of the 91 participants in the study, 48.4% were males (n=44) and 51.6% were females (n=47). Most of the students in this study (84.6%) felt that online teaching had helped in learning Physiology theory; around 43% students found online practical teaching useful. Around 39% students have reported internet connectivity issues all the time while 59% faced problem sometimes. Total 51.6% of students had difficulty in accessibility to devices. Due to coronavirus pandemic, 37.4% of students have reported to be under stress. Around 33% reported feeling unsafe all the time while 39.5% felt unsafe some of the times. Conclusion: Students found online teaching more helpful in learning Physiology theory than practical. Majority of class reported internet connectivity issues. All the responders agreed that this pandemic affected their regular life. Most of the students felt that online classes have helped them to remain positive and motivated towards study.


PRiMER ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Christensen ◽  
Travis Hunt ◽  
Steven A. Elsesser ◽  
Christine Jerpbak

Introduction: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community members experience adverse health outcomes at higher rates than non-LGBTQ individuals. We examined the impact of student demographics as well as gender and sexuality didactic instruction on the attitudes of first-year medical students toward LGBTQ patients. Methods: In January 2017, 255 first-year students at an urban allopathic medical school participated in a gender and sexuality health curriculum. We assessed student attitudes regarding LGBTQ patients using anonymous pre- and postintervention surveys. Each item was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Results: Of 255 possible respondents, we received 244 responses to the preintervention survey (95.7% response rate) and 253 to the postintervention survey (99.2% response rate). Participants were predominantly white (66.8%), heterosexual (94.7%), and cisgender (100%). Respondents who identified as LGBQ were significantly (P&lt;.05) more likely than heterosexual students to agree with the following preintervention statements, among others: (1) Discordance between birth sex and gender is a natural human phenomenon, (2) When meeting a patient for the first time, I feel comfortable asking what pronoun they use, (3) I am able to empathize with the life experience of an LGB/T patient, (4) I am motivated to seek out opportunities to learn more about LGBTQ-specific health care issues. Statistically significant changes in attitudes between time points are seen in 4 out of 15 items. Conclusion: A focused gender and sexuality curriculum appears to impact medical student attitudes regarding LGBTQ patients. Furthermore, recruitment of LGBTQ-identifying medical students may translate into improved workforce motivation to provide health care for LGBTQ patients.


2020 ◽  
pp. postgradmedj-2020-139003
Author(s):  
Kevin Mohee ◽  
Hasan N Haboubi ◽  
Majd Protty ◽  
Christopher Srinivasan ◽  
William Townend ◽  
...  

IntroductionTo compare the impact of an e-learning package with theoretical teaching on the ability of both graduate and undergraduate medical students to learn the management of supraventricular tachycardia.MethodsWe conducted a randomised, controlled, study at two Welsh medical schools. Participants were graduate-entry and undergraduate medical students, who were randomised (in a 1:1 ratio) to either 1 hour of training using an e-learning package or an hour of lecture-based teaching. The outcome was a comparison, within each group and between groups, of median scores achieved in assessments of knowledge through completion of preintervention, immediate post intervention and 2 weeks postintervention questionnaires.ResultsOf the 97 participants available for randomisation, 47 underwent teaching using the e-learning package and 50 were taught in the lecture group. Median scores were higher in the e-learning package group than the lecture group, though this difference was not statistically significant (4.00 vs 3.00; p=0.08) immediately after intervention. At 2 weeks post intervention, median scores in the e-learning package group were significantly higher than the median scores in the lecture group (4.00 vs 3.00; p=0.002). This was despite a subanalysis of the results demonstrating that subjects in the lecture group reported having seen more cases compared with those in the e-learning group (32 vs 13; p=0.002). Further, there was a significant fall in score over 2 weeks in the group receiving lecture-based teaching, but no such decrease in those using the e-learning package.ConclusionE-learning seems to be the preferred method of learning and the method that confers longer retention time for both postgraduate and undergraduate medical students.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. e035690
Author(s):  
Xiong Ye ◽  
Haiying Guo ◽  
Zhou Xu ◽  
Hui Xiao

ObjectivesEmpathy education is very important for medical students. There is little research on the influence of early clinical practice on the development of empathy and other aspects of professionalism in medical students. The aim of this study was to compare the self-reported empathy levels of first-year and second-year undergraduate medical students before and after their early clinical contact curriculum.SettingThe study was conducted at the Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.ParticipantsA total of 257 undergraduate medical students participated in the study. The 154 first-year students were studying in 10 community-based teaching hospitals, and the 103 second-year students were studying in 3 university-affiliated hospitals.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrimary measures: the Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Student version (JSE-S) was compared between students of different sexes and in different academic years before their early clinical contact course. Secondary measures: comparisons were made after they finished the curriculum 3 weeks later.ResultsA total of 219 of 257 students responded (85.21% response rate), and 214 answers could be analysed (135 first-year and 79 second-year students; 120 female and 94 male individuals). No significant differences in the empathy scores before early clinical contact were observed between students of different sexes and in different academic years. After early clinical contact, the mean JSE-S score of the participants was significantly higher than the mean score at the beginning of the curriculum.ConclusionsEmpathy-focused training during early clinical contact can improve the empathetic capacity of undergraduate medical students. Fostering empathetic attitudes among undergraduate medical students is necessary for the early stage of their medical education. Further research is needed on the long-term effects of empathy-focused education in entry-level medical students.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reem Rachel Abraham ◽  
Sharmila Torke ◽  
James Gonsalves ◽  
Sareesh Naduvil Narayanan ◽  
M. Ganesh Kamath ◽  
...  

The present study reports perceptions of first-year undergraduate medical students ( n = 120), regarding modified directed self-learning (DSL) sessions in physiology. Students were provided with prereading assignments (faculty developed PowerPoint slides containing diagrams with incomplete labeling/flowcharts with missing steps) pertaining to the DSL topic 1 wk before the scheduled small-group DSL presentations. During DSL presentation sessions, which were facilitated by teachers, a few students individually presented learning objectives in the specified topic. Apart from that, students discussed answers for the questions in the prereading assignment. Students were also given an opportunity to use technology to support DSL, by way of involving them in Pecha Kucha (PK) talks. The impact of the modified DSL method was determined by requesting students to respond to a validated questionnaire. Frequency analysis of the responses revealed that >60% of students were positive about the modified DSL sessions improving their DSL, presentation, collaborative learning, and information retrieving skills. Students agreed that PK talks helped them to learn how to organize content (65%), present concise information (65.8%), and apply creativity (72.5%). Even though small in number, there were comments that the prereading assignments were useful for learning. The present study revealed that, even though students actively participated in modified DSL sessions, their perceptions on satisfaction and usefulness of the same toward achievement of various skills were not encouraging. The study generated significant results, which implies that undergraduate medical students should be oriented on the relevance of active learning strategies in their future studies.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e049590
Author(s):  
Marija Franka Žuljević ◽  
Karlo Jeličić ◽  
Marin Viđak ◽  
Varja Đogaš ◽  
Ivan Buljan

ObjectivesTo evaluate the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 on the burnout and study satisfaction of medical students.DesignA cross-sectional study with a presurvey and postsurvey.SettingUniversity of Split School of Medicine (USSM), Split, Croatia. The lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic lasted from late March to mid-May 2020. There was a full switch to e-learning at the USSM during this period, and all clinical teaching was stopped.ParticipantsStudents enrolled in the 2019/2020 academic year. Data were collected before lockdown in December 2019 and January 2020 and again after the end of lockdown in June 2020.Primary and secondary outcome measuresStudy satisfaction was assessed using the study satisfaction survey. Burnout was assessed using two instruments: Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. We used Bayesian statistics to compare before-and-after differences.Results437 independent responses (77.2% response rate) were collected before and 235 after lockdown (41.5% response rate). 160 participant responses were eligible for pairing. There was no significant difference for both paired and unpaired participants in study satisfaction before (3.38 on a 1–5 scale; 95% credible interval (95% CrI) 3.32 to 3.44) and after (3.49, 95% CrI 3.41 to 3.57) lockdown. We found no evidence (Bayes factor (BF10) >3.00 as a cut-off value) for an increase in the level of burnout before and after lockdown, both in independent and paired samples.ConclusionsIt seems that the first pandemic-related lockdown and a switch to e-learning did not affect burnout levels among medical students or their perception of their study programme. More insight is needed on the short-term and long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical students and their education. Well-structured longitudinal studies on medical student burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic are needed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emad Tashkandi

BACKGROUND Disruption of education and learning can lead to drastic changes in educational outcomes; therefore, we need to maximize the benefits of e-technology. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore changes in knowledge, attitudes, and challenges regarding e-learning of medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also determine how e-learning has influenced academic performance. METHODS We conducted a self-administrated electronic survey to collect information on undergraduate medical students’ e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated its validity, reliability and pilot tested the instrument. We recruited participants using convenience sampling via WhatsApp and sent reminders one and two weeks later using SurveyMonkey. RESULTS We received 995 responses from validated undergraduate medical students from August 7–19, 2020. Nearly all respondents responded that they have knowledge of e-learning and its tools. More than two-thirds of the respondents indicated that they gained fair/very good knowledge from online classes and discussion boards. Additionally, more than half of them indicated that they gained fair/very good knowledge from e-assessments, mobile-learning, links, e-resources, and e-problem based learning. Regarding attitudes, students responded they had “somewhat” adequate knowledge, proper training, positive feelings, and were comfortable engaging in e-learning. Reported challenges experienced with e-learning included poor internet speed and lack of clinical experience and physical examination skills. There was a statistically significant difference between the test scores for the first and second semesters for year 6, year 5, year 4, and year 2 students. CONCLUSIONS Nearly all respondents are familiar with e-learning tools. The implementation of e-learning during the pandemic led to an overall improvement in knowledge gain, accompanied by positive attitudes. Subsequently, there were measurable improvements in students’ test scores in regard to overall academic performance. Our study indicates the need to boost infrastructure and address the challenges of e-learning. CLINICALTRIAL NA


Background: Information technology (IT) is a new way of teaching and learning. One of the promising media of information technology is e-Learning, which is used to enhance knowledge and skills among users. A student gains better and deep knowledge through a useful tool. This survey aimed to determine practices among medical students for e-Learning. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 184 students amongst the 500 students currently enrolled in medical college. Data was collected using questionnaires and were analyzed through SPSS version 22. Chi-square was used for qualitative values. Results: Majority 90.80% (n=167) students were aware of e-Learning and were statistically high in first year students (p-value: 0.018). The student did not show statistically significant results for content learned through e-Learning with a p-value of 0.063. Different resources were used for e-Learning in which videos had the highest percentage (87.60%) and audios were used as the least resource for e-Learning (29.20%). Daily, 56% of the students use e-Learning for 1 hour or less and only 3% of the students used it for more than 4 hours. Conclusion: Majority of undergraduate medical students were aware of the use of e-Learning and most of them preferred e-Learning for their course work and studies showing a significant increase in understanding and use, compared to studies conducted earlier. Participants found e-Learning useful and effective tool in increasing knowledge and understanding of their subject. Keywords: e-Learning; Practices; Students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meysam Siyah Mansoory ◽  
Mohammad Rasool Khazaei ◽  
Seyyed Mohsen Azizi ◽  
Elham Niromand

Abstract Background New approaches to e-learning and the use of virtual reality technology and serious game in medical education are on the rise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of lecture method and virtual reality-based serious gaming (VRBSG) method on students learning outcomes about the approach to coma. Methods We adopted a randomized trial method for this study and selected 50 medical students dividing them into experimental and control groups. Students’ learning outcome was measured with a 10-item test. Serious game usability scale was used to evaluate the usability of the serious game. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis by SPSS-22 software. Results Students’ familiarity with e-learning and VRBSG was low. The mean usability of a VRBSG was 126.78 ± 10.34 out of 150. The majority of students were eager to be instructed through VRBSG. The mean score of learning outcomes in the experimental group was significantly higher than the control group (t = − 2.457, P = 0.019). Conclusion Students’ learning outcomes in the VRBSG group in the test approach to coma were significantly better than the lecture group. The usability of the serious game instruction method was high. Taken together, instruction through VRBSG had an effective role in medical students’ learning.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. e042983
Author(s):  
Helen Carter-Roberts ◽  
Richard Antbring ◽  
Manuela Angioi ◽  
Gemma Pugh

ObjectiveAn e-learning resource (MEdic GAming, MEGA) was developed based on the contents of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine exercise prescription booklet. This study aimed to (i) explore medical students’ perspectives of physical activity promotion and e-learning and (ii) investigate medical students’ response to the design, content and usability of the MEGA e-learning resource.DesignQualitative think-aloud interview study.SettingA London medical school.Participants19 undergraduate medical students were interviewed using the think-aloud method while using the e-learning resource concurrently.ResultsIn general, medical students felt current education on physical activity is inadequate and held a strong desire for more teaching on exercise medicine. Students believed the MEGA e-learning resource addressed a gap in their knowledge on physical activity but noted e-learning should not replace face-to-face teaching and suggested physical activity education would be best delivered through a blended learning approach. Students felt such an approach would allow better opportunity to practice physical activity counselling skills with patients while on clinical placement. Students’ motivation to engage with the MEGA e-learning resource was positively impacted by aesthetically appealing design and interactive gamification elements such as self-assessment quizzes and visual progress tracking.ConclusionMedical students value the role of physical activity in health but are disappointed by the lack of teaching within the current medical curriculum. E-learning resources, such as MEGA, which contain interactive features are a viable means to integrate physical activity into the undergraduate curriculum but should be supplemented by the opportunity to practice physical activity counselling in-person.


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