Abstract
Background: Medical education had to adapt quickly by switching to online learning due to the pandemic lockdown. This paper compared face-to-face clinical communication skills (CCS) teaching to delivering the same course online. Methods: During lockdown (2020-21), 175 medical students took the CCS course online, compared to 154 face-to-face trained students in the previous academic year. The CCS course aims to develop skills in history taking (2nd year) and motivational interviewing techniques (3rd year). Students participated in theoretical lectures and practical skills training sessions composed of SP encounters, followed by instant SP and tutor feed-back, all online. After the practical examination, multi-source feed-back was obtained. Multi-source feed back from the online course was qualitatively analyzed with hierarchical thematic coding of free text. Face-to-face and online teaching activities were compared in terms of attendance and course grades. Results: Eighty-eight second and 87 third year students received online training, 73 second and 81 third year students trained face-to-face. Attendance rates did not differ, average course grades were higher in the online delivered courses for both years (year 2 history taking skills course face-to-face 81,29±20.323 vs. online 95,45±20.949, p
Published Version
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