Medical Education at the Time of COVID-19

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted medical education worldwide. This study investigates how Saudi medical colleges face the pandemic and proceed with teaching and assessment plans. The study also highlights the best practices employed by Saudi medical colleges during the time of COVID-19 crisis and proposes a contingency plan in the event of future outbreaks necessitating similar containment measures. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among medical colleges in Saudi Arabia between June and August 2020. A convenience sampling method was applied. An online questionnaire was designed. The questionnaire consisted of six main parts: basic demographic data, curriculum, teaching and learning, learning management systems (LMS), assessment, and lessons learned. The questions targeting the educational process focused on what was happening before and what was done during the pandemic. Data were collected using Google Forms. The data was analyzed using SPSS. Results: A variety of teaching modalities were used before the pandemic, including class lectures (95.46%), problem-based learning (70%), case-based learning (47.25%), team-based learning (43.67%), videos/online interaction (24.58%), and flipped classroom (18.13%). During the pandemic, 97.87% of the participants used video lectures. During the pandemic, PBL and tutorial usage were reduced to 40.09% and 48.44% compared to 71.59% and 64.91% before the pandemic, respectively. Most faculty members (65.39%) reported no problems (nor did they encounter any obstacles) during online classes. Fully 96.18% of participants used Blackboard LMS during the pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 50.83% of participants reported utilizing continuous assessment, and 50.35% reported that the summative (final) assessment they performed was an online assessment. Most participants reported (85.68%) use online multiple-choice questions, followed by students' projects (34.84%), online SAQs (25.53%), and online objective structured clinical examinations (21.47%) if the pandemic were to continue. Conclusions: This study's value lies in the large sample of faculty and nationwide distribution of responses. Study results enable an understanding of early heuristic responses to online education, which may be used as a guide for mitigation efforts and to identify success stories, obstacles, key issues, and solutions.