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Successful alternatives in the web-teaching of human physiology during the COVID-19 pandemic
Biomedical and Biopharmaceutical Research ; 17(2):134, 2020.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1771988
ABSTRACT

Introduction:

In Brazilian universities, with the start of the pandemic caused by the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19), traditional methods of face-to-face classes were suspended indefinitely. As an alternative to maintain the interaction of students with our university during the Covid-19 pandemic, we proposed a free online course.

Objective:

To describe a Human Physiology web course offered to undergraduate students and evaluate the students' perceptions about it.

Methods:

The course proposal included activities carried out during May 2020 and was approved by the Institutional Education Committee (IRB No. 10.069.20). We offer 50 vacancies. Students should be regularly registered in an undergraduate program of Federal University of Pampa/Brazil, and have prior approval in the Human Physiology course or equivalent. We proposed to students synchronous and asynchronous activities, using active teachig methods (flipped class) to address topics considered important for understanding and review different Human Physiology systems. For asynchronous activities, developed according to the preferred time of each student, we used different online tools and platforms, such as Lt® Plataform (ADInstruments), Socrative®, social medias, etc. To promote a real time interaction between students and teachers, synchronous activities on Zoom® and interactive questions using the Mentimeter® were proposed.

Results:

Considering the 50 students that started the course, 58% (n = 29) completed at least 70% of the total course, and 16% (n = 8) completed at least 60%. 40 students answered to the evaluation questionnaire. In general, the students' expectations about the course included the Human Physiology contents' review and the opportunity for new learning (about the content and the remote teaching) - in this sense, the course fully to the expectations of 85% of students (n = 34). For most students (90%;n = 36) this was the first web course with this type of method. About the different online tools and activities used during the course, the students inducated that they liked more the exercised in Lt® Platform (100%;n = 40), followed by Zoom®'s interactions (77.5%;n = 31), Mentimeter® webquizzes (60%;n = 24) and Youtube® videos (57.5%;n = 23). The dynamic used in the activities was well accepted by students and most of them considered that it contributed to their understanding of the content (85%;n = 34). Moreover, most students (80%;n = 32) considered the dynamic of the activities as important to increase their frequency of studies during the quarantine period. Considering a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (excellent), the average grade attributed by the students to the course was 9.15 ± 1.23. Conclusions and Support Here we report that a web course designed to review the main topics in Human Physiology during the Covid-19 quarantine was well accepted and approved by students. The methods proposed can be considered as a successful alternative to the webteach of Physiology, especially in the current moment that requires social distancing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: Biomedical and Biopharmaceutical Research Year: 2020 Document Type: Article

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Full text: Available Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Language: English Journal: Biomedical and Biopharmaceutical Research Year: 2020 Document Type: Article