Teaching Pediatric Surgery in the Online Environment: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The research is aimed at investigating challenges and opportunities of teaching online course in Pediatric Surgery at Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine. The participants were 42 students of the 5-th year of study. After taking the course, the students were offered to fill in 24-item 4-point Likert-type scale containing the statements regarding various issues of distance learning: gaining theoretical and practical knowledge, teacher-student and student-student interaction, the interface and content of the course, technical issues and computer literacy, academic success, development of self-directed learning skills, as well as motivation for learning, critical thinking, problem solving, self-organization and time management skills. The median value for the total cohort is 3 indicating that the majority of students gave affirmative responses. Students positively evaluated the course content and structure, interface of the platform Neuron and the interactive tools like forums, chats, videoconferencing which allowed communicating with peers and the teacher in real time and getting immediate feedback. At the same time, students experience lack of practical skills as quarantine measures don’t allow attending face-to-face lessons, they cannot interact with patients and participate in surgical operations, etc. This is a challenging task to develop medical students’ motivation, professional problem-solving and critical thinking skills in the online environment. The authors offer the recommendations to enhance the quality of online learning: use image-guided surgical simulation tools, implement interactive forms of virtual teaching, case method.