A SIGN Group 's Diverse Virtual Neurology Education Programs: Successes, Barriers, and Future Directions

ABSTRACT

Objective: To implement diverse virtual educational activities for students interested in Neurology. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic prevented our Student Interest Group in Neurology (SIGN) group from continuing regular in-person engagement and educational programs. We created educational opportunities and expanded outreach using innovative virtual platforms. Design/Methods: We developed three virtual educational programs Bewitching Brain, a YouTube channel geared toward pre-graduate/pre-medical and first year medical students;a speaker series providing new information in the field of clinical and academic neurology;and a medical humanities journal club blog. We assessed engagement via numbers of subscribers and views (channel), surveys (speaker series), and quantity and content of comments (journal club). Results: YouTube channel subscribership is at 92 with 25 videos, and video views range from 10-170 (mean 49). Attendance at our four speaker series lectures ranged from 2 to 8 with a paucity of post-survey follow-up, preventing quantitative analysis. However, we also used qualitative survey questions;for example, our “Neurological Aspects of COVID-19” lecture survey included questions regarding virtual medical learning. Responses encompassed themes of feeling “overwhelmed” and missing “in-person learning,” with planned adaptations including remote research involvement and virtual patient support. The medical humanities journal club generated interesting and in-depth aesthetic discussion and engagement from a small number of SIGN group members. Conclusions: We created diverse learning opportunities during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. As learning environments open, we are implementing in-person speaker series lectures and adjunct humanities journal club discussions with higher attendance and survey completions. Barriers included challenges reaching a wide audience with the channel, and difficulties with speaker series virtual discussion attendance and survey engagement. We foresee including M1 and M2 students in YouTube video development as well as collaborating with MCW student groups and SIGN groups nationally to expand our other programs.