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- Title
Effects of realistic e-learning cases on students' learning motivation during COVID-19.
- Authors
Rahm, Ann-Kathrin; Töllner, Maximilian; Hubert, Max Ole; Klein, Katrin; Wehling, Cyrill; Sauer, Tim; Hennemann, Hannah Mai; Hein, Selina; Kender, Zoltan; Günther, Janine; Wagenlechner, Petra; Bugaj, Till Johannes; Boldt, Sophia; Nikendei, Christoph; Schultz, Jobst-Hendrik
- Abstract
Background: Keeping up motivation to learn when socially isolated during a pandemic can be challenging. In medical schools, the COVID-19 pandemic required a complete switch to e-learning without any direct patient contact despite early reports showing that medical students preferred face-to-face teaching in clinical setting. We designed close to real-life patient e-learning modules to transmit competency-based learning contents to medical students and evaluated their responses about their experience. Methods: Weekly e-learning cases covering a 10-week leading symptom-based curriculum were designed by a team of medical students and physicians. The internal medicine curriculum (HeiCuMed) at the Heidelberg University Medical School is a mandatory part of clinical medical education in the 6th or 7th semester. Case-design was based on routine patient encounters and covered different clinical settings: preclinical emergency medicine, in-patient and out-patient care and follow-up. Individual cases were evaluated online immediately after finishing the respective case. The whole module was assessed at the end of the semester. Free-text answers were analyzed with MaxQDa following Mayring's principles of qualitative content analyses. Results: N = 198 students (57.6% female, 42.4% male) participated and 1252 individual case evaluations (between 49.5% and 82.5% per case) and 51 end-of-term evaluations (25.8% of students) were collected. Students highly appreciated the offer to apply their clinical knowledge in presented patient cases. Aspects of clinical context, interactivity, game-like interface and embedded learning opportunities of the cases motivated students to engage with the asynchronously presented learning materials and work through the cases. Conclusions: Solving and interpreting e-learning cases close to real-life settings promoted students' motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic and may partially have compensated for missing bedside teaching opportunities.
- Subjects
COVID-19; COVID-19 pandemic; MEDICAL students; CLINICAL medical education; ACADEMIC motivation; MOBILE learning
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2021, Vol 16, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0249425