Abstract
BackgroundMedical and pathology education has gone through an immense transformation from traditional face-to-face teaching mode to virtual mode during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study evaluated the effectiveness of online histopathology teaching in medical education during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Griffith University, Australia.MethodsSecond-year medical students (n = 150) who had previously completed one year of face-to-face histopathology teaching, completed an online questionnaire rating their learning experiences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic after the completion of their histology and pathology practical sessions. The students' histopathology assessment results were then compared to the histopathology results of a prior second-year cohort to determine if the switch to online histopathology teaching had an impact on students' learning outcome.ResultsA thematic analysis of the qualitative comments strongly indicated that online histopathology teaching was instrumental, more comfortable to engage in and better structured compared to face-to-face teaching. Compared to the previous year's practical assessment, individual performance was not significantly different (p = 0.30) and compared to the prior cohort completing the same curriculum the mean overall mark was significantly improved from 65.36% ± 13.12% to 75.83% ± 14.84% (p < 0.05) during the COVID-19 impacted online teaching period.ConclusionsThe transformation of teaching methods during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic improved student engagement without any adverse effects on student learning outcomes in histology and pathology education.
Highlights
Medical and pathology education has gone through an immense transformation from traditional face-to-face teaching mode to virtual mode during the COVID-19 pandemic
This study evaluated the effectiveness of online histopathology teaching in medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic
An entirely online teaching mode for pathology in medical education is associated with improved student learning experiences, positive attitudes towards histology and pathology learning, and better engagement by students
Summary
Medical and pathology education has gone through an immense transformation from traditional face-to-face teaching mode to virtual mode during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pathology teaching is an essential component of preclinical medicine It provides the pillars for understanding disease aetiology and pathogenesis, which is the basis of all diagnosis and therapy [1, 2]. Waugh et al BMC Medical Education 2022, 22(1): textbooks or gross pathological specimens [3] This enables students to identify, zoom in on and study various tissue samples. A combined didactic method integrating components of virtual microscopy with face-to-face teaching and conventional light microscopy has been implemented [4]. This has improved student interactions and pathology learning experiences by increasing student curiosity and implementing basic science related clinical casesto improve understanding [5]
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