Medical Teaching and Assessment in the Era of COVID-19.

Anthony Mark Monaghan

doi:10.1177/2382120520965255

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant influence on medical education, most notably in terms of content delivery and provision of assessments. These unique times have facilitated the introduction of many new educational methods in medical schools globally each of which with potential merits and drawbacks. Importantly, the use of remote platforms to carry out online teaching has been especially vital in ensuring the continued training of doctors but other techniques such as telemedicine, online clinical case repositories and even virtual reality headsets are also being used to overcome these difficult circumstances. Some institutions also opted for open book written examinations raising issues surrounding this format’s legitimacy and potential benefits. Practical examinations are even harder to facilitate and although most were cancelled, this crisis may result in innovation which changes their future format. For example some may include audible clinical signs played online through a computer speaker to replace clinical examination. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an overhaul of medical school orthodoxy that whilst disruptive, may serve to expose institutions to novel means of teaching and assessment which may ultimately improve medical education in future.

Highlights

There is evidence that students have a positive perception of online learning methods in both medical and non-medical contexts and that it can be at least as effective as traditional teaching,[2] further supporting this notion
One study during this crisis highlighted some common downsides to remote teaching from the perspective of undergraduate medical students including technical difficulties, easy distraction and some staff being poorly-versed with the technologies used.[3]
The vast majority of students found online sessions to be a good use of time and the paper proposes at least some incorporation of these into medical teaching, perhaps as part of a ‘flipped-learning’ approach.[3]

Summary

Introduction

These were generally very efficacious in facilitating teaching of essential course content and received positive feedback from medical students at Imperial College. There is evidence that students have a positive perception of online learning methods in both medical and non-medical contexts and that it can be at least as effective as traditional teaching,[2] further supporting this notion.

Results

Conclusion