Medical Education Online (Dec 2023)

Student academic performance in non-lecture physiology topics following the abrupt change from traditional on-site teaching to online teaching during COVID-19 pandemic

  • Pachara Varachotisate,
  • Natakorn Siritaweechai,
  • Weerapat Kositanurit,
  • Sekh Thanprasertsuk,
  • Maneerat Chayanupatkul,
  • Thana Thongsricome,
  • Thanapob Bumphenkiatikul,
  • Nipat Chuleerarux,
  • Pasakorn Watanatada,
  • Duangporn Werawatganon,
  • Juraiporn Somboonwong,
  • Prasong Siriviriyakul,
  • Sompol Sanguanrungsirikul,
  • Saknan Bongsebandhu-Phubhakdi,
  • Varis Ratanasirisawad,
  • Aunchalee Jaroenlapnopparat,
  • Chuti Burana,
  • Pornpavee Somsirivattana,
  • Onanong Kulaputana,
  • Kasiphak Kaikaew

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2022.2149292
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 28, no. 1

Abstract

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ABSTRACTBackground During the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-clerkship medical education, including all physiology classes, was obliged to change to online teaching due to limitations of on-site (face-to-face) classes. However, the effectiveness of online teaching in non-lecture physiology topics during the COVID-19 pandemic has not been thoroughly investigated.Method We conducted a prospective study to evaluate the students’ academic achievement and opinions on online teaching during the COVID-19 academic year. Academic achievement of 312 students in the COVID-19 year was compared with that of 299 students in the pre-COVID-19 year. Student opinions regarding social interactions and the preferred learning method were also collected.Results We found that student academic achievement in the non-lecture physiology topics, assessed by summative scores, was 4.80±0.92 percent higher in the pre-COVID-19 year than in the COVID-19 year (P < 0.01, Cohen’s d = 0.42). Students rated that online classes tended to reduce their interactions with peers and teachers; however, students preferred online learning over traditional on-site learning.Conclusions This study pointed out that students’ academic performance related to the physiology topics taught by online non-lecture methods during the COVID-19 pandemic was lower than their performance when the topics were taught by the traditional (on-site) methods, although students reported that they preferred the online teaching. Hence, we suggest that medical teachers should deliberately plan and utilise a variety of tools and techniques when developing online non-lecture classes to preserve the interactivity of the classes, which might overcome this gap in students’ academic performance.

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