Division of Medical Education, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Medical Technology Innovation Center, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
PLoS One. 2022 Mar 14;17(3):e0265356. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265356. eCollection 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many educational institutions to turn to electronic learning to allow education to continue under the stay-at-home orders/requests that were commonly instituted in early 2020. In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education in terms of students' attitudes toward online classes and their online accessibility; additionally, we examined the impacts of any disruption caused by the pandemic on achievement test performance based on the test results. The participants were 674 students (412 in pre-clinical, 262 in clinical) at Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine; descriptive analysis was used to examine the respondents' characteristics and responses. The majority of respondents (54.2%) preferred asynchronous classes. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed that while pre-clinical students preferred asynchronous classes significantly more than clinical students (39.6%, p < .001), students who preferred face-to-face classes had significantly higher total achievement test scores (U = 1082, p = .021, r = .22). To examine the impacts of pandemic-induced changes in learning, we conducted Kruskal-Wallis tests and found that the 2020 and 2021 scores were significantly higher than those over the last three years. These results suggest that while medical students may have experienced challenges adapting to electronic learning, the impact of this means of study on their performance on achievement tests was relatively low. Our study found that if possible, face-to-face classes are preferable in an electronic learning environment. However, the benefit of asynchronous classes, such as those that allow multiple viewings, should continue to be recognized even after the pandemic.
新冠疫情迫使许多教育机构转向电子学习，以便在 2020 年初普遍实施的居家令/请求下继续进行教育。在这项横断面研究中，我们从学生对在线课程和在线学习便利性的态度方面评估了新冠疫情对医学教育的影响；此外，我们还根据考试成绩检查了疫情造成的任何干扰对学业成就测试表现的影响。参与者是顺天堂大学医学部的 674 名学生（412 名临床前学生，262 名临床学生）；采用描述性分析来检查受访者的特征和回答。大多数受访者（54.2%）更喜欢异步课程。曼-惠特尼 U 检验显示，虽然临床前学生明显比临床学生更喜欢异步课程（39.6%，p<.001），但更喜欢面对面课程的学生的总学业成就测试成绩明显更高（U=1082，p=.021，r=.22）。为了检查学习方式改变带来的影响，我们进行了克鲁斯卡尔-沃利斯检验，发现 2020 年和 2021 年的分数明显高于过去三年的分数。这些结果表明，虽然医学生可能在适应电子学习方面遇到了挑战，但这种学习方式对他们在学业成就测试中的表现的影响相对较低。我们的研究发现，如果可能的话，在电子学习环境中面对面课程是首选。然而，即使在疫情结束后，也应该继续认识到异步课程的好处，例如允许多次观看的课程。
