Online medical education delivered through the Facebook platform during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

Abstract

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic put extreme pressure on higher education institutions in terms of staffing and providing in-person teaching. This pressure provided an opportunity to accelerate the move universities were already making to transitioning large parts of the curriculum online. The Remote Learning project, based in Norfolk, United Kingdom had an aim of supplementing Norwich Medical School (NMS) teaching during the pandemic. It was an online program of asynchronous and synchronous teaching delivered by medical students on Facebook. After the project ended, we investigated the student and tutor perceptions of online learning delivered through the Facebook Social Medica (SoMe) platform. Methods: This qualitative study recruited students and tutors from NMS by email, participation was voluntary. Online semi-structured interviews of both students and tutors in the remote learning project were conducted. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: In total, 7 participants were interviewed. Students enjoyed the informal synchronous and asynchronous nature of the SoMe platform but were concerned about mixing professional and social platforms and the potential professional implications of this. Tutors enjoyed the comments section and community feel but had concerns about data security of educational material online. Both students and tutors were concerned about distraction and productivity on SoMe. Conclusions: The study found that SoMe can be a credible platform to deliver online teaching which has unique benefits such as being free, easy to use and having the potential at breaking down traditional pedological hierarchies. However, it comes with limitations such as a perceived risk of distraction and the mix of professional and social boundaries. Educators should consider the ergonomics of SoMe platforms when designing online curriculums and guidelines should be considered on the use of SoMe in medical education.