Comparison of hybrid learning and remote education in the implementation of the "Adopt a Microorganism" methodology.

The Internet has changed the way teachers and students access information and build knowledge. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for both teachers and students and a demand for new methodologies of remote learning. In the life sciences, mixing online content with practical activities represents an even greater challenge. In microbiology, the implementation of an active teaching methodology, the #Adopt project, based on the social network Facebook®, represents an excellent option for connecting remote education with classroom activities. In 2020, the version applied in high school, "Adopt a Microorganism", was adapted to meet the demands of emergency remote education owing to the suppression of face-to-face activities caused by the pandemic. In the present study, we assessed how the change in methodology impacted the discourse richness of students from high school integrated with technical education in the Business Administration program of the Federal Institute of São Paulo, Sorocaba Campus. Three questionnaires related to the groups of microorganisms (Archaea, Bacteria, Virus, Fungi, and Protozoan) were applied. The students' responses in the 2019 and 2020 classes were compared concerning content richness and multiplicity of concepts through the application of the Shannon diversity index, an approach that is generally used to assess biodiversity in different environments. The observed results suggest that remote learning provided students with a conceptual basis and richness of content equivalent to that achieved by students subjected to the hybrid teaching model. In conclusion, this study suggests that the #Adopt project methodology increases students' discourse richness in microbiology even without face-to-face traditional classes.

Making Effective Educational Videos for Clinical Teaching.

Prerecorded video content in medical education has become more common. Increasingly accessible technology coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent need for distanced learning has greatly increased the interest in and need for high-quality video content. The use of short educational videos to augment other teaching methods has been shown to improve learners' experiences, knowledge retention, and understanding of content. Multiple studies have demonstrated that video education can be a highly effective tool for learning, particularly for hard-to-visualize processes and for procedural education. Videos allow learners to view content at their own pace and revisit materials on demand. In addition, well-designed videos can be repurposed by educators, ultimately reducing time needed to create high-quality educational content. Currently available technology allows educators to create high-quality videos at minimal cost and with a modest investment of time. This article details practical tips for creating high-yield educational videos.

Learning in peer teaching of patient relations and communication skills at the "Anamnesegruppen" Munich - proof-of-concept and lessons learned.

Background: Due to the ban on classroom teaching during the pandemic, the Munich "Anamnesegruppen" had to be switched to e-learning at short notice. There were no established concepts for this, which is why digitalization was piloted and evaluated for feasibility. Student "Anamnesegruppen": "Anamnesegruppen" have existed for over 50 years and are organized as independent student peer teaching. In small groups of medical and psychology students, interviews with patients are conducted once a week during the semester. This is followed by a feedback and discussion round, in which ethical and professional questions are discussed in addition to the patient's medical history. The goal is to train the participants' ability to communicate and reflect. Adaptation to digital methods: The anamnesis seminars have been moved to a virtual group room using video conference. Patients were mainly recruited from the participants' circle of acquaintances. The group size was set at eight people each in four groups and supervised by a pair of student tutors. Confidentiality and data protection declarations were obtained in writing. Results: By switching to digital anamnesis groups, all four groups were successfully completed. Both the final supervision of the tutors and the electronic evaluation of the participants yielded positive feedback. Compared to the two previous evaluations of the semesters in classroom sessions, there were no significant differences in the evaluation. Discussion: The continuously good evaluation results, which did not differ between the digital format and the classroom course of the previous semesters, show that an ad hoc conversion to digital teaching is possible. We want to stress the fact that elements reflecting the doctor-patient relationship were successfully preserved. For the similarly structured Balint groups, virtual sessions may also be considered. Further research, especially prospective, is desirable in order to better understand the possibilities of digital teaching in this area.

A Framework for Developing Holistic Leaders.

Advocating for holistic leaders' development, holistic leadership is defined and contrasted with other developmental approaches. A model that frames four dimensions of development is presented. These dimensions include self-awareness and values identification, relational capacity, problem solving and action orientation, and other orientation. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(5):211-213.].

Learning how to conduct medical interviews online for the first time - this is what we learned in Frankfurt am Main.

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to convert a course on history taking, in theory and practice, to an online format over a very short time. A key question was whether, and if so to what extent, basic theory and, in particular, the practical skills required to conduct medical interviews can be learned online. Methodology/project description: The teaching program in basic theory was didactically redesigned and asynchronously placed on a learning platform, while the practical program, which consisted of training in conducting history-taking interviews, took place with the help of video conferencing software during synchronous sessions. For the practical sessions, the lecturers received organizational and technical support. Results: Based on initial evaluation results, a positive picture of the conversion has emerged since the course was completed. The need to restructure the course and use new teaching methods because of the COVID-19 pandemic was well accepted by lecturers and students, and the course content was successfully adapted to an online format. Conclusion: Overall, the online format enabled the learning objectives of the course to be successfully achieved. For topics such as non-verbal communication, the evaluation results indicated that a classroom format is preferable. Asynchronous theory teaching was generally very well received. Blended learning formats thus represent an appropriate means of teaching how to conduct medical interviews. Overall, online courses on conducting medical interviews provide students with the opportunity to become acquainted with the use of digital formats to conduct doctor-patient interviews, and to develop the relevant skills.

Distance teaching of experimental scientific methodology and scientific thinking.

Objective: The aim of this project was to convert a traditional face-to-face seminar for the teaching of experimental scientific methodology to remote teaching in a timely manner due to the COVID-19 related restrictions to teaching in presence. Methodology: The main focus of the course was on flow cytometry. Basics were developed in a virtual presence phase. Specific teaching contents were taught by an interactive presentation, which came very close to the user experience of a flow cytometer and interactively illustrated the influence of different experimental conditions on the obtained results. Video sequences of authentic sample acquisitions were integrated into Adobe Captivate®. These "virtual acquisitions" were not distinguishable from the original procedure. For interpretation of the resulting diagrams, interactions were inserted, which allowed direct comparison of the obtained results. Implementation: A presentation with interactive elements and video sequences was created and used for the virtual presence phases. After publishing on a web server in HTML 5, contents were made available to the students for post-processing of learning contents by self-paced learning with full (interactive) functionality. Conclusion: Contributions elaborated by the students during the course demonstrate a learning outcome comparable to that archieved in the last years in presence mode. While implementation of this solution represented a highly time-consuming process, narrative feedback was consistently positive. Due to the short time available for implementation, no systematic evaluation could be conducted, which represents a clear limitation of this work.

COVID-19 as a chance for hybrid teaching concepts.

COVID-19 has turned the 2020 spring semester upside down. Three days before the start of the block week of the "Teamwork" module, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) announced the ban on live interaction, which made it impossible to conduct five days of practice in the simulation centre of the University Hospital of Zurich. But how can the teaching of all the learning objectives necessary for medical training be guaranteed during an exceptional situation with constantly changing conditions? In the case of the BSc Human Medicine at ETH Zurich (ETHZ), the answer is: Hybrid teaching. The field report "COVID-19 as a chance for hybrid teaching concepts" outlines how ETHZ switched to hybrid teaching within a very short time and how hospital placements were combined with video conferences. The qualitative surveys conducted at the end of the semester and the weekly quantitative surveys of students from March to June indicate the importance of personal exchange despite the ban on contact and that interactivity is possible even without physical proximity. An example from the autumn semester will also be used to show which aspects have proved to be successful and can therefore be retained.

TEACHING MUST GO ON: flexibility and advantages of peer assisted learning during the COVID-19 pandemic for undergraduate medical ultrasound education - perspective from the "sonoBYstudents" ultrasound group.

Background: Facing the global COVID-19 pandemic University teaching has been digitalized and German medical faculties took great effort to offer curricular contents online as they agreed that semesters during pandemic should not be suspended. Skill training is an essential part of medical education and cannot be fully digitalized nor should it be omitted. The pandemic demonstrates that skills like ultrasound are essential when treating critical ill patients. Medical faculties use peer assisted learning (PAL) concepts to teach skills, like ultrasound through specially trained student tutors. Aim: Here, we would like to share our experiences and elaborate how ultrasound teaching can be safely performed during the pandemic with an emphasis on adjustment of an existing PAL teaching concept. Method: At the hospital of Saarland University, we implemented a PAL teaching concept for abdominal, including emergency, ultrasound, and echocardiography, called "sonoBYstudents" to teach sonography to undergraduate medical students. Students are generally taught in small groups of 5 people in 90min sessions over a time of 8 weeks with an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) at the end of the course program. Each semester nearly 50 students are taught in abdominal and emergency ultrasound and 30 students in echocardiography. Over five years, more than 600 students have been taught with at least 30 students being trained as student tutors. Given the pandemic, course size, course interval and total course time and total course time were adapted to the hygienic precautions. Results: 45 and 30 students were taught in abdominal ultrasound and echocardiography respectively achieving their learning goals measured via OSCE at the end of the courses. OSCE results were the same when compared to previous semesters. Conclusion: PAL as a teaching concept lives out of sustained educational strategies like practical and didactical trainings and an ongoing recruitment of new student tutors. Suspending PAL and its skill teaching would require starting from the beginning which is a time and cost consuming process. With sonoBYstudents we were able to demonstrate that an existing PAL concept can, with some effort, be adjusted to changing teaching circumstances. Apart from this ultrasound is a non-omittable part of medical skill training with easily appliable hygienic precautions during teaching sessions.

The use of the online Inverted Classroom Model for digital teaching with gamification in medical studies.

Introduction: In 2014, a newly designed, case-based seminar was successfully implemented in the subjects of health systems, health economics and public health care (GGG). The seminar "The Lonely Patient" is based on a real patient case and deals with the German health care system from the perspective of a patient. In order to create more space for discussion and exchange among students, the seminar was redesigned on the basis of the Inverted Classroom Method (ICM). Project description: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new, purely digital teaching formats had to be developed quickly in the sense of Emergency Remote Teaching. Therefore, the Inverted Classroom concept of the seminar was transformed into an online ICM. In order to promote active learning based on the ICAP model (Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive), the online face-to-face part was designed as a synchronous interactive learner-centered course using the gamified audience response system Kahoot! Results: Evaluation results to date and feedback rounds with students indicate that the online ICM-version of the seminar leads to at least as good evaluation results as the previous face-to-face course. In particular, the students positively emphasize the use of Kahoot! as an activating digital medium. Discussion: Through the use of the ICM and the gamified audience response system Kahoot!, students could be activated in meaningful ways. The resulting discussions about the patient case and teaching content of the quiz questions in the synchronous online course could be implemented just as well as in the classroom-based course of previous semesters. Conclusion: The application of the online ICM, along with the consideration of the ICAP Model, has led to the successful implementation of a digital course within the context of the increased difficulty surrounding the emergency remote teaching. Additionally, students' learning success has remained at a similar level as during traditional classroom-based courses of previous semesters.

Practical teaching in undergraduate human and dental medical training during the COVID-19 crisis. Report on the COVID-19-related transformation of peer-based teaching in the Skills Lab using an Inverted Classroom Model.

Objective: Drastic restrictions were imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially relating to the practical training part of the undergraduate human and dental medical training. During emergency mode teaching in the summer semester of 2020, a pilot project on practical classroom teaching under COVID-19 conditions was undertaken the Skills Lab Dresden, the Interprofessional Medical Training Centre (MITZ). Students were able to continue learning basic communication and manual skills. This project report presents the adaptations needed for this teaching concept and discusses their feasibility as well as selected evaluation results of the trial run. Description of the project: In normal teaching, students rotate to complete training sessions in small groups. Teaching is provided in a peer-teaching format. An Inverted Classroom Model was implemented as a teaching concept during emergency operation with preparation through digital learning and classroom teaching. Organisational and teaching adjustments were carried out for the concept and to comply with containment regulations. The concept was evaluated by the students using a standardised online questionnaire. Results: 1012 students completed their training during emergency operation at the university. The containment regulations meant that there were a higher number of training sessions and a higher workload. Only one of the alternative dates provided had to be used for COVID-19-related reasons. Infection chains could be tracked. The majority of students found the communication of information via Moodle to be sufficient and did not experience any technical problems. An analysis of the students' evaluation revealed a high level of overall satisfaction with the adapted teaching concept. Conclusion: The MITZ will once again use the concept in a modified form should there be renewed or continued emergency operation. The Inverted Classroom Model will also be established as an integral part of regular teaching. The findings may be of interest to other Skills Labs to develop concepts for emergency operation teaching to efficiently utilise site-specific resources.

Medical didactics during the pandemic: the asynchronous online seminar "Written Examinations" of the Frankfurter Arbeitsstelle für Medizindidaktik.

Objective: Due to the prohibition of face-to-face courses during the Corona pandemic, the seminar "Written Examinations" of the Frankfurter Arbeitsstelle für Medizindidaktik (FAM) was converted into an asynchronous online seminar. This pilot project investigated how such a format is accepted and evaluated by the participants. Methodology: A forum-based online format with group and individual tasks was chosen, which was didactically designed according to the problem-oriented design by Reinmann and Mandl. Results: The seminar was attended by 14 people, 13 of whom took part in the evaluation. The overall evaluation was, with one exception, a grade of 2 (and better). The three items "practical relevance", "subjective learning success" and the question of recommendation also received very high approval ratings. The weekly workload reported by the participants was very heterogeneous (mean=2.4 hours; SD=1.1). For some participants, the use of the learning platform was not intuitive and group collaboration was somewhat faltering. Conclusion: The experiences made show that courses on medical didactics can be implemented online and are gladly accepted by the participants. Based on the experience gained, online seminars or blended learning formats will certainly continue to be part of the FAM course program in the future.

The Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic and its Social Impact on Education: Were Engineering Teachers Ready to Teach Online?

The major impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still affecting all social dimensions. Its specific impact on education is extensive and quite evident in the adaptation from Face-to-Face (F2F) teaching to online methodologies throughout the first wave of the pandemic and the strict rules on lockdown. As lesson formats changed radically, the relevance of evaluating student on-line learning processes in university degrees throughout this period became clear. For this purpose, the perceptions of engineering students towards five specific course units forming part of engineering degree courses at the University of Burgos, Spain, were evaluated to assess the quality of the online teaching they received. Comparisons were also drawn with their perceptions of the F2F teaching of the course units prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. According to the students' perceptions, the teachers possessed the technical knowledge, the social skills, and the personal capabilities (empathy and understanding of the at times troubled situation of each student) for a very abrupt adaptation of their courses to an online methodology. The shortcomings of the online teaching were related to its particularities and each teacher's personality traits. Overall, engineering teachers appeared well prepared for a situation of these characteristics and, if similar online teaching scenarios were ever repeated, the quality of engineering teaching appears to be guaranteed.

Instagram for peer teaching: opportunity and challenge.

Medical education is increasingly being delivered beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Online learning and peer teaching are particularly popular among educators to complement traditional, didactic teaching methods. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, students at the Queen's University Belfast's (QUB) General Practice Society started creating daily multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on Instagram to help continue learning while placements were suspended. There were high levels of engagement with the MCQs, with students reporting the content to be both relevant and useful for their learning. The project also allowed us to gain early experience of teaching, furthered our own learning and helped develop key skills (e.g. providing constructive feedback, creativity, self-directed learning) important for both our professional and personal development. Nonetheless, there are few published examples of the use of Instagram within medical education. Further work needs to be carried out to summarise projects delivered on the platform, train educators in using Instagram, and encourage students to get involved in finding further, novel methods of delivering medical education.

Clinical Reasoning: Adapting Teaching Methods During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Meet Student Learning Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic impacted all aspects of health care, including nursing education. Senior nursing students saw the elimination of in-person clinical opportunities in the final months prior to graduation as health care facilities restricted access to essential personnel in an effort to minimize transmission of the virus and conserve personal protective equipment. METHOD: To fulfill course requirements, faculty created a COVID-19 assignment that implored students to research the most current infection control recommendations for COVID-19 and to describe the impacts of the virus on nursing care, patients, families, interdisciplinary collaboration, and public safety. RESULTS: The COVID-19 assignment fostered clinical reasoning and encouraged personal reflection with application to practice. Students reported that the assignment greatly enhanced knowledge and awareness of COVID-19. CONCLUSION: This assignment was beneficial for transition to practice in the midst of a pandemic, and it can be easily replicated for any future emerging health care topic that may affect nursing education. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(1):48-51.].

Medical Education in Nepal: Impact and Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a global shift toward online distance learning due to travel limitations and physical distancing requirements as well as medical school and university closures. In low- and middle-income countries like Nepal, where medical education faces a range of challenges-such as lack of infrastructure, well-trained educators, and advanced technologies-the abrupt changes in methodologies without adequate preparation are more challenging than in higher-income countries. In this article, the authors discuss the COVID-19-related changes and challenges in Nepal that may have a drastic impact on the career progression of current medical students. Outside the major cities, Nepal lacks dependable Internet services to support medical education, which frequently requires access to and transmission of large files and audiovisual material. Thus, students who are poor, who are physically disadvantaged, and who do not have a home situation conducive to online study may be affected disproportionately. Further, the majority of teachers and students do not have sufficient logistical experience and knowledge to conduct or participate in online classes. Moreover, students and teachers are unsatisfied with the digital methodologies, which will ultimately hamper the quality of education. Students' clinical skills development, research activities, and live and intimate interactions with other individuals are being affected. Even though Nepal's medical education system is struggling to adapt to the transformation of teaching methodologies in the wake of the pandemic, it is important not to postpone the education of current medical students and future physicians during this crisis. Looking ahead, medical schools in Nepal should ensure that mechanisms are proactively put into place to embrace new educational opportunities and technologies to guarantee a regular supply of high-quality physicians capable of both responding effectively to any future pandemic and satisfying the nation's future health care needs.