Experiential student study groups: perspectives on medical education in the post-COVID-19 period.

BACKGROUND: Undergraduate medical curricula often fail to integrate experiential learning methodologies. Thus, a pilot series of interactive pathology lessons was designed and implemented in an attempt to promote experiential learning. METHODS: Thirty pre-graduate medical students voluntarily participated in the interactive study groups at the First Department of Pathology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School. A questionnaire was designed to investigate the satisfaction of students regarding their participation in pathology study groups and to identify the characteristics that shape students' perceptions of the foundations of medical education. Descriptive statistics (mean values) were used to describe the students' evaluations of the pathology study groups, and thematic analysis was conducted to investigate the data collected using open-ended questions. RESULTS: Interactions with the professor and the option of co-observing the slides using dual-view optical microscopes and virtual slides were each evaluated as "Excellent" by ≅ 95% of the students. Four overarching themes were identified regarding the core characteristics of medical education according to the students' perspectives: 1) educational background in medical education, 2) interaction with educators in medical education, 3) educational material in medical education and 4) assessment in medical education. CONCLUSIONS: The high rates of acceptance of the pathology study groups reflect the desire and need for active learning methodologies to be implemented in modern medical education. Nearly all the students mentioned the need for practical skill acquisition, the integration of theory into practice and ethics in medical education. The success of these optional pathology study groups highlights the need for similar modalities to be incorporated into the main medical education curriculum.

Evaluating e-Learning in the Pathology Course During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: Synchronous and asynchronous e-learning is a promising and effective educational method for the delivery of medical lessons. Due to the public health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Pathology Department faced the challenge of a total online transition of the lessons. Therefore, the aim is to evaluate the aspects of the applied e-learning method they received. Materials and Methods: At the end of the semester when e-learning was applied, we designed a structured questionnaire consisting of 17 items via Google Forms, which took the students between 5 and 7 minutes to complete. Of the 257 students registered on the Pathology course in the fifth semester, 207 students (80.5%) returned completed valid questionnaires. Results: Fifteen of the seventeen components of the e-learning Pathology questionnaire were evaluated highly by the vast majority of the students. The two remaining items, the HIPON platform and the Microlabs e-lessons, were evaluated highly by almost half the students. Approximately 93% of medical students answered that e-learning could be integrated with real class lessons in the medical curriculum: 62.8% (N = 130) of students answered to a great extent, and 30.4% (N = 63) answered to a small extent. Statistically significant differences were found between the demographic characteristics of the participants (gender, permanent residence, working status) and their evaluation of the e-learning items. Conclusion: E-learning was successfully implemented for the delivery of the pathology lessons and was widely accepted by the students, providing evidence for its future integration into the medical curriculum. Our findings illuminate various aspects of the students' experience with e-learning, and we strongly recommend that the students' evaluation and perspective be taken into consideration by the faculty in the development of policies for higher-quality medical education.

Participation and Interactivity in Synchronous E-Learning Pathology Course During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE: Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions had to utilize online platform solutions to deliver their curriculum. We conducted this study to explore participation and interactivity in a synchronous e-learning non-mandatory participation course in pathology at a medical school in Greece. The knowledge acquired is expected to be instrumental in the development of educational practices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data for this study were gathered through the recorded video archives of the synchronous e-lessons. We observed online participation at seven time points during each of the assessed e-lessons. Moreover, we identified and categorized the professor's/students' interactivity patterns according to content. RESULTS: The maximum number of students participating in the first e-lesson was N = 196. We recorded a reduction of N = 91 students, approximately 46%, in maximum student participants from the second observed e-lesson, and an additional decrease of N = 28 students, approximately 27%, from the third observation. Participation numbers continued to lessen. Even though there was a statistically significant difference in the mean percentage of students participating between the seven time points of each e-lesson, the difference in the mean percentage of students' online participation between the seven e-lessons assessed was not statistically significant. This indicates a consistent e-audience. Evidence of interactivity was summarized in a table, and each professor-students interaction was classified according to its content. We found that the professor posed questions to his students every 2-5 minutes during every synchronous e-lesson and e-tutorial observed, and students wrote 3-6 answers in chat in response to each question. Students asked more questions as more synchronous e-learning classes took place, with limited exceptions. CONCLUSION: From our perspective, our observations set the basis for further research to enhance our understanding of the aspects of the e-learning environment towards the formulation of policies for higher-quality education. PLAIN TEXT: Our pathology department places high value on the quality of education that the medical students receive. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our department had to deploy e-learning modalities for curriculum delivery. Thus, we conducted this research to evaluate a pathology e-learning class in terms of students' participation and the interactivity dynamics between them and the professor. We used statistics to measure participation during each e-lesson and identified recurring patterns of interactivity. We avoided imposing our predetermined interpretations of the data in this study so as to present an accurate depiction of the aspects of the e-learning environment. We were very pleased to identify a steady e-audience despite the drop-out rate from one e-lesson to the next, as well as strong, increasing interactivity patterns between the students and the professor, as students posed more and more questions from one e-lesson to the next. We are looking forward to future studies that address the e-learning procedure's challenges and provide evidence of its effectiveness and quality.