Medical school in the era of COVID-19: Innovations in direct near peer teaching of immunology/microbiology content during the pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background. Near-peer teaching (NPT) is increasingly utilized in undergraduate medical education. At our institution's NPT program, teachers are recruited and trained in the final block of their first year, involving simultaneous learning and teaching of Immunology and Microbiology content to classmates. This year, in-person training and teaching was conducted virtually due to COVID19. This study aims to understand how NPT in a newly virtual curriculum impacted student experiences of learning infectious disease content. Methods. We conducted one-on-one interviews with student-learners and direct-peer student-teachers at the end of their first year in June 2020. Using constructivist grounded theory, we coded, reconciled, and analyzed interview transcripts to identify themes. Results. Qualitative analysis of interviews with students (n=5) and near-peer teachers (n=7) yielded the following themes 1.Optimized learning environment Direct peer teaching leads to students feeling more personally invested in their peers' lessons and wellbeing, creating a safe community and increased engagement despite the virtual format and recordings. 2.Benefits of education technology Teachers employed creative virtual learning modalities to promote students' mastery of challenging memorization-based microbiology content. 3.COVID-19 relevance Learning microbiology and immunology content synchronously with the COVID pandemic conferred more content relevance, but presented academic challenges due to social and personal stressors. 4.Educator development Despite the difficulty of occupying a dual student-teacher role, teachers derived many benefits from teaching, including improved communication skills, which extended to the clinic, content mastery, and increased confidence. Conclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented disruptions in medical education. However, the shift to virtual direct peer teaching presented an opportunity for creative virtual teaching strategies and increased lesson accessibility via recordings. Unexpectedly, virtual lessons were perceived as non-inferior to in-person lessons. Findings from this study support the use of virtual near-peer teaching programs in infectious diseases medical education.