E-learning and the virtual transformation of histopathology teaching during COVID-19: its impact on student learning experience and outcome
File version
Version of Record (VoR)
Author(s)
Devin, James
Lam, Alfred King-Yin
Gopalan, Vinod
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract
Background: Medical and pathology education has gone through an immense transformation from traditional face-to-face teaching mode to virtual mode during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study evaluated the effectiveness of online histopathology teaching in medical education during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in Griffith University, Australia. Methods: Second-year medical students (n = 150) who had previously completed one year of face-to-face histopathology teaching, completed an online questionnaire rating their learning experiences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic after the completion of their histology and pathology practical sessions. The students' histopathology assessment results were then compared to the histopathology results of a prior second-year cohort to determine if the switch to online histopathology teaching had an impact on students' learning outcome. Results: A thematic analysis of the qualitative comments strongly indicated that online histopathology teaching was instrumental, more comfortable to engage in and better structured compared to face-to-face teaching. Compared to the previous year's practical assessment, individual performance was not significantly different (p = 0.30) and compared to the prior cohort completing the same curriculum the mean overall mark was significantly improved from 65.36% ± 13.12% to 75.83% ± 14.84% (p < 0.05) during the COVID-19 impacted online teaching period. Conclusions: The transformation of teaching methods during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic improved student engagement without any adverse effects on student learning outcomes in histology and pathology education.
Journal Title
BMC Medical Education
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
22
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Curriculum and pedagogy
Clinical sciences
Specialist studies in education
Social Sciences
Education & Educational Research
Education, Scientific Disciplines
COVID-19
Pathology
Persistent link to this record
Citation
Waugh, S; Devin, J; Lam, AK-Y; Gopalan, V, E-learning and the virtual transformation of histopathology teaching during COVID-19: its impact on student learning experience and outcome, BMC Medical Education, 2022, 22, pp. 22