Abstract
PurposeEducation as part of medical education is currently changing rapidly. Not least because of the corona crisis, more and more digital teaching formats and innovative teaching concepts such as the flipped classroom model are finding their way into teaching. We analyzed the acceptance and effectiveness of traditional teaching methods as well as the interest in innovative e‑learning methods among medical students in the field of radiation oncology at the medical school of the Technical University of Munich.MethodsWe carried out an online-based survey as well as a knowledge test on all students from two terms who had completed the seminar series of radiation oncology. The survey comprised seven questions on the frequency of participation, acceptance, and judgment of the effectiveness in terms of learning and on a potential use of e‑learning methods using a six-point Likert scale. The test consisted of 10 multiple-choice questions.ResultsTraditional teaching methods are largely accepted by students and most students consider the current learning format to be effective in terms of the teaching effect in the field of radiation oncology. However, only about 50% of all knowledge questions were answered correctly. The possible use of e‑learning methods was judged critically or desired in roughly equal parts among the students.ConclusionTraditional seminars enjoy a high level of acceptance among students. Effectiveness with regard to the internalization of content taught, however, should be increased. After all, the future seems to lie in the integration of e‑learning in the form of educational videos and practical seminars.
Highlights
Like many other fields of study, undergraduate medical education in Germany has undergone extensive changes in the past years
Since only one miss was allowed, around 70% of the participants had attended all five, about 25% four, and only 4% three seminars. 125 participants answered all the questions referring to a personal judgement of the seminar series “radiation oncology” (Fig. 1)
The distribution of votes was more homogeneous with the question on the benefits of applying e-learning variants
Summary
Like many other fields of study, undergraduate medical education in Germany has undergone extensive changes in the past years. The Ohio State University College of Medicine conducted a survey and identified the most important components of medical education: next to clinical problem solving, learning how to acquire knowledge, developing bedside manner, teamwork, technology training, and clinical research were among the top six aspects [4]. All of these aspects require a high degree of reflection, empathy, teamwork, and practical skills, which must all be based on profound knowledge. A restructuring of the medical curriculum is called for by education experts [6]
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