Abstract | December 13, 2022
The Impact of COVID on Medical Education: Evaluation of Immunology Module Performance and Student Satisfaction in In-Person vs Virtual Course Presentation
Learning Objectives
- Identify some of the changes in medical education delivery that COVID made necessary
- Discuss how student satisfaction surrounding undergraduate immunology medical education changed from 2019 (before COVID) to 2020 (during COVID)
- Discuss how content delivery changes during COVID affected immunology course performance compared to pre-COVID performance
Background: In March of 2020, education across the world transitioned to virtual delivery and medical education was not immune. The quality of online education at all levels of learning has been questioned by parents, students, and instructors alike, however comparisons of student performance between in-person and virtual delivery of the same medical course have not been fully investigated.
Purpose: This research aimed to explore the efficacy of virtual medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing the 2019 and 2020 Immunology course offered at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.
Methods: The project compared course material provided between the two years, as well as compared overall course performance and performance by objective as outlined in course presentations. De-identified student data from 61 final exam questions that did not differ between the two years will be analyzed to assess student performance in the course by topic, delivery method and resources. Prism GraphPad 9 will be used for statistical analysis.
Results: In addition to changes in content delivery, formative Canvas quizzes were generated in 2020 to replace lecture review questions and the total number of Clinical cases decreased. The student performance results have not been processed in their entirety.
Conclusions: Once results have been obtained, the hope is to draw conclusions on whether virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic affected final Immunology exam outcomes and identify successful strategies for student learning. Overall, this study may have implications for students educated during COVID and for medical education as a whole.
References:
- Prescott, John E. Important Guidance for Medical Students on Clinical Rotations During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak. 2020 March. https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/press-releases/important-guidance-medical-students-clinical-rotations-during-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak
- Sadeghi R, Sedaghat MM, Sha Ahmadi F. Comparison of the effect of lecture and blended teaching methods on students’ learning and satisfaction. J Adv Med Educ Prof. 2014 Oct;2(4):146-50. PMID: 25512938; PMCID: PMC4235559.
- Motte-Signoret E, Labbé A, Benoist G, Linglart A, Gajdos V, Lapillonne A. Perception of medical education by learners and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey of online teaching. Med Educ Online. 2021 Dec;26(1):1919042. doi: 10.1080/10872981.2021.1919042. PMID: 33871308; PMCID: PMC8079026.
- AlQhtani A, AlSwedan N, Almulhim A, Aladwan R, Alessa Y, AlQhtani K, Albogami M, Altwairqi K, Alotaibi F, AlHadlaq A, Aldhafian O. Online versus classroom teaching for medical students during COVID-19: measuring effectiveness and satisfaction. BMC Med Educ. 2021 Aug 28;21(1):452. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02888-1. PMID: 34454493; PMCID: PMC8397601.
Disclosure: The authors did not report any financial relationships or conflicts of interest
