Reinventing Medical education in the COVID-19 era

ABSTRACT

Since the beginning of the year 2020, COVID-19 pandemic has engulfed the whole world. Many cities across the globe have been under lockdown during this outbreak and the regular classes, clinical, laboratory sessions have been suspended in most medical schools. In the midst of this pandemic, we have had to reinvent the pedagogy of undergraduate medical teaching. The ongoing crisis has motivated medical teachers to come up with a contingency plan for continuing training in the face of adversary. As in-person training had to be avoided, the traditional methods of teaching like didactic lectures, tutorials, case discussions and practical laboratory sessions were of no value in the midst of this pandemic. This led the educationists to explore e-learning resources in order to carry on the medical school training program. There are several challenges in designing a successful e-learning program. Medical institutions must identify sustainable e-learning solutions specially in resource-constrained settings. This perspective article discusses how medical education has been affected by COVID-19 around the world and how it has made educators rethink their teaching strategy. The paradigm shift to e-learning during this outbreak may encourage medical schools to revisit and redesign their curriculum to more versatile programs in future. The experiences gathered during this period might bring about groundbreaking changes in how medicine is taught. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Asian Journal of Medical Sciences is the property of Manipal Colleges of Medical Sciences 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 abstract 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 abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)