Evaluation of e-learning of undergraduate medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown by an Objective Structured Practical Examination

Abstract

Background: E-learning resources have a broad range of uses in medical education. Skills require the teaching of numerous domains, including cognitive and psychomotor domains in medical education. Feedback supports better competence in medical education, it has been shown that multimedia and e-learning tools have improved testing in both cognitive and psychomotor domains. Aims and Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the e-learning of undergraduate medical students with an Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE). Materials and Methods: A total of 96 of 150 medical students participated in a single group in e-learning, as this study was purely Internet based, so it may be that the remaining 54 students did not participate due to no Internet connectivity. By using OSPE, we have created two stations (video based), one was hand hygiene and the second was biomedical waste management. At the start of 30min, students were sensitized to lectures (one-way teaching) followed by a 30-min video of each station using the GoToMeeting app. In the end, the students were asked to correct steps of hand hygiene and segregation of biomedical waste, according to the color-coding system. Results: Of 96 students who took both the tests and gave their feedback on the questionnaire, 95.83% felt that they were given adequate time at each station, 68.75% responded that the teaching material provided in the e-learning resources were clear and easy to understand, 73.96% responded that the e-learning resources covered a wider range of knowledge than the traditional examination, 86.46% said that the e-learning resources were helpful in understanding basic hand hygiene concepts, 94.79% said that the e-learning resources were helpful in memorization and revision of hand hygiene practical skills, 61.46% opined that e-learning resources were easier to pass than traditional examination, 96.88% responded that the OSPE assessment of the e-learning process helped in scoring better than the traditional assessment methods and was less stressful, 81.25% said that OSPE helps in e-learning as well as evaluation in competency-based medical education (CBME), and 96.88% said that OSPE should be implemented in medical education as an assessment tool for both formative and summative evaluation. Conclusion: e-Learning advances can possibly substitute face-to-face address in medical education, especially during this pandemic. Such methodologies may not exclusively be vital for successfully handling the clinical training quandary during this present emergency; however, it will likewise serve to establish the framework for educating during future calamities and past.