Perceptions of medical students towards online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national cross-sectional survey of 2721 UK medical students
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Dost, Samiullah
Hossain, Aleena
Shehab, Mai
Abdelwahed, Aida
Al-Nusair, Lana
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objectives To investigate perceptions of medical students on the role of online teaching in facilitating medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic
Design Cross-sectional, online national survey
Setting Responses collected online from 4th May to 11th May 2020 across 40 UK medical schools
Participants Medical students across all years from UK-registered medical schools
Main outcome measures The uses, experiences, perceived benefits and barriers of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results 2721 medical students across 39 medical schools responded. Medical schools adapted to the pandemic in different ways. The changes included the development of new distance-learning platforms on which content was released, remote delivery of lectures using platforms and the use of question banks and other online active recall resources. A significant difference was found between time spent on online platforms before and during COVID-19, with 7.35% students before vs. 23.56% students during the pandemic spending >15 hours per week (p<0.05). The greatest perceived benefits of online teaching platforms included their flexibility. Whereas the commonly perceived barriers to utilising online teaching platforms included family distraction (26.76%) and poor internet connection (21.53%). Conclusions Online teaching has enabled the continuation of medical education during these unprecedented times. Moving forward from this pandemic, in order to maximise the benefits of both face-to-face and online teaching and to improve the efficacy of medical education in the future, we suggest medical schools resort to teaching formats such as team-based/problem-based learning. This utilises online teaching platforms allowing students to digest information in their own time but also allows students to then constructively discuss this material with peers. It has also been shown to be effective in terms of achieving learning outcomes. Beyond COVID-19, we anticipate further incorporation of online teaching methods within traditional medical education. This may accompany the observed shift in medical practice towards virtual consultations.
Design Cross-sectional, online national survey
Setting Responses collected online from 4th May to 11th May 2020 across 40 UK medical schools
Participants Medical students across all years from UK-registered medical schools
Main outcome measures The uses, experiences, perceived benefits and barriers of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Results 2721 medical students across 39 medical schools responded. Medical schools adapted to the pandemic in different ways. The changes included the development of new distance-learning platforms on which content was released, remote delivery of lectures using platforms and the use of question banks and other online active recall resources. A significant difference was found between time spent on online platforms before and during COVID-19, with 7.35% students before vs. 23.56% students during the pandemic spending >15 hours per week (p<0.05). The greatest perceived benefits of online teaching platforms included their flexibility. Whereas the commonly perceived barriers to utilising online teaching platforms included family distraction (26.76%) and poor internet connection (21.53%). Conclusions Online teaching has enabled the continuation of medical education during these unprecedented times. Moving forward from this pandemic, in order to maximise the benefits of both face-to-face and online teaching and to improve the efficacy of medical education in the future, we suggest medical schools resort to teaching formats such as team-based/problem-based learning. This utilises online teaching platforms allowing students to digest information in their own time but also allows students to then constructively discuss this material with peers. It has also been shown to be effective in terms of achieving learning outcomes. Beyond COVID-19, we anticipate further incorporation of online teaching methods within traditional medical education. This may accompany the observed shift in medical practice towards virtual consultations.
Date Issued
2020-11-05
Date Acceptance
2020-10-26
Citation
BMJ Open, 2020, 10 (11)
ISSN
2044-6055
Publisher
BMJ Journals
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Open
Volume
10
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
License URL
Subjects
Medical Education & Training
World Wide Web technology
Telemedicine
Information Technology
Public Health
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e042378
Date Publish Online
2020-11-05