Supporting the Transition to Distance Education During the Pandemic and Beyond.

INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected almost every country around the world, and various forms of lockdown or quarantine measures were implemented. The lockdowns forced medical educators to step beyond traditional educational approaches and adopt distance education technologies to maintain continuity in the curriculum. This article presents selected strategies implemented by the Distance Learning Lab (DLL) at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USU), School of Medicine (SOM), in transitioning their instruction to an emergency distance education format during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: When moving programs/courses to a distance education format, it is important to recognize that two primary stakeholders are involved in the process: faculty members and students. Therefore, to be successful in transitioning to distance education, strategies must address the needs of both groups and provide support and resources for both.The DLL used two lenses of adult learning and targeted needs assessment to design faculty and student support during the pandemic. The DLL adopted a learner-centered approach to education, focusing on meeting the faculty members and students where they are. This translated into three specific support strategies for faculty: (1) workshops, (2) individualized support, and (3) just-in-time self-paced support. For students, DLL faculty members conducted orientation sessions and provided just-in-time self-paced support. RESULTS: The DLL has conducted 440 consultations and 120 workshops for faculty members since March 2020, serving 626 faculty members (above 70% of SOM faculty members locally) at USU. In addition, the faculty support website has had 633 visitors and 3,455 pageviews. Feedback comments provided by faculty members have specifically highlighted the personalized approach and the active, participatory elements of the workshops and consultations.Evaluations of the student orientation sessions showed that they felt more confident in using the technologies after the orientation. The biggest increase in confidence levels was seen in the topic areas and technology tools unfamiliar to them. However, even for tools that students were familiar with before the orientation, there was an increase in confidence ratings. CONCLUSION: Post-pandemic, the potential to use distance education remains. It is important to have support units that recognize and cater to the singular needs of medical faculty members and students as they continue to use distance technologies to facilitate student learning.

Medical School Faculty Perceptions of Online Education: Implications for the Future of Medical Education

Many medical school faculty view the educational changes wrought by the pandemic as an aberration and are eager to return to traditional face-to-face teaching. To encourage faculty to continue with online teaching, it is important to understand medical school faculty experiences of teaching virtually during the COVID-19 shutdowns and how that has affected their perceptions of teaching. A qualitative study was undertaken at X School of Medicine (SoM), University X, to understand the barriers and motivators to medical school faculty embracing virtual teaching. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical school faculty who had taught courses during the 2020–2021 academic years and continued to teach in 2022. The interviews were thematically analyzed using Braun and Clarke's framework. Five themes emerged: (1) the advantages of virtual teaching, (2) the challenges of virtual teaching, (3) factors that enable virtual teaching, (4) strategies for success, and (5) the future of teaching. Faculty appreciated the flexibility provided by technology but were also challenged by the reduced interpersonal interactions in virtual teaching. Technology was also challenging in the skillsets and resources needed to use it successfully. Faculty appreciated just-in-time and personalized training, which enabled them to be more successful in virtual teaching. Faculty have come to accept that there are aspects of virtual teaching that are beneficial to learners and should be continued. There is an openness to integrating virtual teaching into the traditional format of face-to-face teaching. However, they need robust institutional support to continue online teaching in medical school. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of American Journal of Distance Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)