Medical students perceptions of virtual learning stations as an innovative teaching tool: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

Deficiencies in students’ interaction and motivation to learn are among the most reported challenges in medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to find new methods to overcome these challenges. We implemented a virtual learning station (VLS) approach in pathology lectures about locomotor diseases carried out over 2 weeks. The study was performed at the Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. We assessed students’ satisfaction and their perceptions of the method used qualitatively via a narrative survey. Common themes in the narratives had been extracted and a coding book had been developed where a brief definition and description of each code had been included. Response rate was 88.8% out of 304 participating first-year students. Most students (93.5%) were satisfied with the VLSs. Extracted themes of students’ perceptions were categorized into advantages, limitations/disadvantages, and recommendations to improve the approach. Regarding the advantages, seven subcategories, namely, knowledge, skills, learning environment, self-efficiency, content & technique, focusing, and feedback, were extracted. Students mentioned the long duration, less collaborative teams, and connection problems as the main limitations/disadvantages. In addition, regarding recommendations, four subcategories, namely, generalization of experience, frequency of repetition, feedback, and duration of sessions, were extracted. So, VLSs can be an innovative learning solution for online medical lecturing in the COVID-19 era to overcome the lack of students’ interaction and motivation to learn.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID
• eLearning
• student interaction
• medical education
• pathology
• virtual learning station

Acknowledegments

the authors would like to thank the Helwan medical students who assisted in implementing the virtual learning stations. Moreover, the authors extend their appreciation to Dr. Zeinab Kasemy, an associate professor of Public Health and Community Medicine, Menoufia University for participating in quantitative data analysis.

Authors’ contributions

Fatma Alzahraa Elkhamisy, is responsible for the idea, plan and implementation of the lecturing method, and designing the instructional materials. She contributed to data collection and analysis. She contributed to writing the 1st draft for the manuscript, read and approved the revised submitted one and, is accountable for all aspects of the work.

Asmaa Fady, contributed to the study design, data collection and analysis. She wrote part of the 1st draft of the manuscript. She revised, and edited the manuscript draft, approved the final submitted version for publication, and is accountable for all aspects of the work.

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sector.

Notes on contributors

Fatma Alzahraa Abdelsalam Elkhamisy

Fatma Alzahraa A. Elkhamisy, MD, Ph.D., MHPE is a lecturer of Pathology, an Examination committee member, the Assistant Head for International Students` Office, and an academic coordinator at the Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. She is also a member of the Community Service committee at the faculty. She is a member of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), and of the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME). She is also a certified VPL trainer (Virtual Patient Learning) from the VPL academy. She has 11 years of experience in medical teaching. Her interests in medical education are educational innovation, curricular integration, instructional design, students’ interaction in learning, and formative assessment. Since promoting to a lecturer, she implemented many innovative instructional and formative assessment methods. She has internationally published articles in medical education and participated in the AMEE 2021 conference by a short communication. She is also a reviewer for medical education manuscripts in international journals. She attended many medical education conferences and workshops.

Asmaa Fady Sharif

Asmaa Fady Sharif, holds a Ph.D. of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, from Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt, and JMHPE Joint Master of Health Profession Education, Maastricht University, Netherland. She is currently working as an assistant professor of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology at College of Medicine, Dar Al-Uloom University, Saudi Arabia, besides being the head of Clinical Exam Revision Committee (CERC) in the college. She has fifteen years of experience in medical education and teaching medical students. Her research interests including innovation in higher education and online learning and faculty development programs. She attends many conferences and community- based activities and is currently involved in national and multinational educational research projects. She has many publications in indexed journals.