ABSTRACT
Introduction: The appearance of the COVID -19 pandemic in the early months of 2020 has changed the way education is delivered, by drastically reducing face to face interaction. In the light of the current situation, professional bodies have ramped up virtual modes of education in the form of webinars, quizzes and various gamifications of learning formats. @ISN Education and its social media team has been in the forefront in presenting and propagating educational initiatives using social media and interacting with ISN Education Working Group and the Academy platform since early 2020. In this study we look at the changing dynamics of online nephrology education in 2020, focussing on @ISN Education Webinars and Quizzes. Methods: The study looks at the participation, attendance, interest rating and attentiveness of the webinars (and the linked social media activities) conducted by the @ISN Education in 2020.The data regarding the webinars conducted by the ISN Education group from May 2019 till November 2020 was collected and analysed for the number of registrations, attendance, attentiveness and interest rating. The data collected was compared between two time points (May 2019 to December 2019 vs January 2020 to November 2020) to better understand the impact of the pandemic on virtual educational initiatives. Data generated from social media activities (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) and quizzes linked to these webinars in 2020 was analysed.Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS Version 22. Results: There were 7 webinars in 2019 and 11 in 2020 till November 2020. The total number of registrations in 2020 was higher than in 2019 (4729 vs 1299:p=0.079). Similarly, the number of attendees in 2020 was higher than in 2019 (2146 vs 465;p=0.084). This was expected as there were more webinars in 2020 (11) than in 2019 (7). The mean (±sd) registrations and attendees in 2020 were still higher than in 2019. (registrations 429.91 ±40.269 in 2020 vs. 185.57 ±96.609 in 2019, p=0.08 and attendees 195.09 ±180.65 in 2020 vs 66.43±36.65 in 2019,p=0.08). The percentage of registrants who actually attended the webinars in 2019 (35.8%) was significantly lower than in 2020 (45.4%)(p=0.01). In 2020 the percentage of attendance was higher in April-June (48%), July -September (49.1%) than in the Jan -March (41.7%). The Spanish language webinars had a lesser attendance perhaps a result of the time at which the webinars were conducted (morning hours in Latin America) All webinars were promoted and introduced on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 3 webinars were introduced in Instagram also.Twitter was the most commonly used media tool for promotion of the webinars(78.5%) and Instagram was least preferred(6%). The webinar titled “COVID19 for the Nephrologist- Real life experience from Italy” was the most popular webinar with 2940 engagements and 41978 impressions on Twitter and had the highest quiz engagement. Conclusions: The webinars conducted by @ISN Education had a higher level of meaningful participation (registration and attendance) during the COVID 19 pandemic. A robust social media interaction in relation to the webinars was noted and demonstrated to be a useful tool to propagate the educational content. A quiz linked to the webinars also garnered interest and had encouraging participation statistics. No conflict of interest