F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Institutional Success, OnlineMedEd, Austin, TX 78758, USA.
Mil Med. 2023 May 18;188(Suppl 2):75-80. doi: 10.1093/milmed/usac217.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected almost every country around the world, and various forms of lockdown or quarantine measures were implemented. The lockdowns forced medical educators to step beyond traditional educational approaches and adopt distance education technologies to maintain continuity in the curriculum. This article presents selected strategies implemented by the Distance Learning Lab (DLL) at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (USU), School of Medicine (SOM), in transitioning their instruction to an emergency distance education format during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When moving programs/courses to a distance education format, it is important to recognize that two primary stakeholders are involved in the process: faculty members and students. Therefore, to be successful in transitioning to distance education, strategies must address the needs of both groups and provide support and resources for both.The DLL used two lenses of adult learning and targeted needs assessment to design faculty and student support during the pandemic. The DLL adopted a learner-centered approach to education, focusing on meeting the faculty members and students where they are. This translated into three specific support strategies for faculty: (1) workshops, (2) individualized support, and (3) just-in-time self-paced support. For students, DLL faculty members conducted orientation sessions and provided just-in-time self-paced support.
The DLL has conducted 440 consultations and 120 workshops for faculty members since March 2020, serving 626 faculty members (above 70% of SOM faculty members locally) at USU. In addition, the faculty support website has had 633 visitors and 3,455 pageviews. Feedback comments provided by faculty members have specifically highlighted the personalized approach and the active, participatory elements of the workshops and consultations.Evaluations of the student orientation sessions showed that they felt more confident in using the technologies after the orientation. The biggest increase in confidence levels was seen in the topic areas and technology tools unfamiliar to them. However, even for tools that students were familiar with before the orientation, there was an increase in confidence ratings.
Post-pandemic, the potential to use distance education remains. It is important to have support units that recognize and cater to the singular needs of medical faculty members and students as they continue to use distance technologies to facilitate student learning.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行影响了全球几乎每个国家，并实施了各种形式的封锁或隔离措施。封锁迫使医学教育者超越传统教育方法，采用远程教育技术来保持课程的连续性。本文介绍了统一服务大学健康科学分校（USU）医学院（SOM）远程学习实验室（DLL）在 COVID-19 大流行期间将其教学过渡到紧急远程教育模式时所采用的部分策略。
当将课程转移到远程教育模式时，重要的是要认识到有两个主要利益相关者参与到这一过程中：教师和学生。因此，要成功地过渡到远程教育，策略必须满足这两个群体的需求，并为他们提供支持和资源。DLL 使用成人学习的两个视角和有针对性的需求评估来设计大流行期间教师和学生的支持。DLL 采用以学习者为中心的教育方法，专注于满足教师和学生的需求。这转化为教师的三个具体支持策略：（1）研讨会，（2）个性化支持，（3）及时的自我指导支持。对于学生，DLL 教师为他们举办了介绍会，并提供及时的自我指导支持。
自 2020 年 3 月以来，DLL 已为教师举办了 440 次咨询和 120 次研讨会，为 USU 的 626 名教师（当地 SOM 教师的 70%以上）提供服务。此外，教师支持网站已有 633 名访客和 3455 次页面浏览量。教师提供的反馈意见特别强调了研讨会和咨询的个性化方法和积极、参与性元素。对学生介绍会的评估表明，他们在介绍会之后对使用技术更有信心。信心水平增加最大的是他们不熟悉的主题领域和技术工具。然而，即使是学生在介绍会前熟悉的工具，他们的信心评级也有所提高。
大流行后，远程教育仍然具有潜力。重要的是要有支持单位，认识到并满足医学教师和学生的独特需求，因为他们继续使用远程技术来促进学生学习。
