From the inverted classroom to the online lecture hall: Effects on students' satisfaction and exam results.

On-site teaching at Ulm University was restricted in the summer semester (SS) 2020 due to the Corona pandemic. The biochemistry seminar "From gene to protein" in the 2nd preclinical semester, which had been successfully conducted as an Inverted Classroom (IC), had to be changed to an online concept. The aim of this study was to analyze the concept conversion in terms of students' satisfaction and knowledge acquisition. In the seminar, human medical students of the 2nd semester acquired biochemical and competency-oriented learning content. In SS2019, the course was taught using the IC concept. For the conversion to the online format in the SS2020, alternative teaching materials were developed and used. Students' satisfaction was assessed by an evaluation questionnaire and knowledge acquisition was tested by a written biochemistry exam. For both teaching concepts a high level of satisfaction was detected. Individual evaluation criteria were evaluated similarly by the students for both concepts. The online concept led up to significantly higher biochemistry exam scores. Due to the high levels of students' satisfaction in both concepts and the results of the biochemistry exam, it can be concluded that online teaching offers a suitable substitute. Based on these results, it is worth to undertake further research on digitization of studies.

Did video kill the XR star? Digital trends in medical education before and after the COVID-19 outbreak from the perspective of students and lecturers from the faculty of medicine at the University of Ulm.

Aim: Using a comparison of digital teaching in medicine before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, the aim of the study was to examine how ad hoc digitization has changed (1) the design of digital teaching, (2) the attitudes toward and the capabilities of digital teaching and learning and (3) the future importance of individual digital teaching elements. Methods: Students and lecturers from the Medical Faculty of Ulm were asked to voluntarily participate in online surveys during the summer semesters of 2019 and 2020. The data was subsequently analyzed from a longitudinal and cross-sectional view descriptively as well as by using t-tests and Chi2-tests. In addition, using regression analyses, the results were controlled for associations with age, study progress, and media affinity. Results: In the summer semester 2019, 163 students (6.1% response rate) and 56 lecturers (11.5%) participated in the surveys. In the following year, the participation increased to 285 students (10.4%) and 64 lecturers (12.8%). Video-based teaching elements such as videoconferencing and lecture recordings were increasingly used after the COVID-19 outbreak and considered more significant for future teaching. In contrast, virtual reality, augmented reality and 360°-videos, grouped under the term extended reality (XR), are descriptively becoming less important. Most lecturers would like to teach more digitally even after the pandemic but fear a decrease in learning effectiveness and contact with students, who tend to prefer asynchronous learning opportunities. Conclusion: Video-based teaching elements proved to be a low-threshold and time-efficient solution during the lockdown and were also recommended for future use. The XR technology has been put on the back burner for the time being, but in view of the increased digital teaching motivation and capabilities, it can be assumed that lecturers will recognize and use the potential of XR as soon as they have the freedom to design innovative teaching again.