Open AccessEffects of realistic e-learning cases on students’ learning motivation during COVID-19
Author(s) -
Ann Kathrin Rahm,
Maximilian Töllner,
Max Ole Hubert,
Katrin Klein,
Cyrill Wehling,
Tim Sauer,
Hannah Hennemann,
Selina Hein,
Ζoltan Κender,
Janine Günther,
Petra Wagenlechner,
Till Johannes Bugaj,
Sophia Boldt,
Christoph Nikendei,
JobstHendrik Schultz
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0249425
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , curriculum , interactivity , medical education , covid-19 , medicine , pandemic , psychology , multimedia , computer science , pedagogy , paleontology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology
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 6 th or 7 th 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.