Teaching physiology to medical students in the COVID-19 era with synchronous formative assessments utilising simultaneous, combined Zoom and Socrative platforms

Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2021     |     PP. 12-32      |     PDF (573 K)    |     Pub. Date: January 31, 2021
DOI: 10.54647/education88192    172 Downloads     6279 Views  

Author(s)

Mohammed H. Abdulla, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Elizabeth Brint, Department of Pathology, Cork University Hospital, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Mark G. Rae, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Abstract
Background: The continuing COVID-19 crisis of 2020 demanded a sudden and massive shift within academia from face-to-face learning to online and remote learning for both teaching and assessment.
Methods: Herein, we describe our own experience of this transition and, more specifically, of using the web-based Zoom video conferencing platform in conjunction with the cloud-based student response system, Socrative, to deliver synchronous physiology formative assessments/tutorials to first-year medical students.
Results: Of the 65% (n=55) of students in the class that responded to an end of module survey on the assessments, 96% (53 students) indicated that they had joined at least one of the four Zoom/Socrative quiz sessions, with 65% attending all four. The vast majority of respondents (82%) indicated that the sessions were effective in facilitating their learning. Based upon comments submitted for the survey, students liked the Zoom/Socrative assessments primarily because they provided an efficient and uncomplicated way of both communicating remotely, but still ‘face-to-face’, with their instructors, and allowed them to assess their knowledge of asynchronously-delivered, pre-recorded physiology material.
Conclusions: In summary, this study presents a feasible means of delivering real-time, synchronous physiology teaching and assessment in this era of enforced social distancing and remote learning.

Keywords
formative assessment; Socrative; Zoom; remote learning; pre-recorded lectures

Cite this paper
Mohammed H. Abdulla, Elizabeth Brint, Mark G. Rae, Teaching physiology to medical students in the COVID-19 era with synchronous formative assessments utilising simultaneous, combined Zoom and Socrative platforms , SCIREA Journal of Education. Volume 6, Issue 1, February 2021 | PP. 12-32. 10.54647/education88192

References

[ 1 ] Sandars J, Correia R, Dankbaar M, de Jong P, Goh PS, Hege I, Masters K, Oh S-Y, Patel R, Premkumar K et al: Twelve tips for rapidly migrating to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. MedEdPublish 2020, 9(1):82.
[ 2 ] Vela K: Using Slack to communicate with medical students. J Med Libr Assoc 2018, 106(4):504-507.
[ 3 ] Sutterlin J: Learning is Social with Zoom Video Conferencing in your Classroom. In., vol. 2020: eLearn, ACM 2018; 2018: 5.
[ 4 ] Sayem ASM, Taylor B, McClanachan M, Mumtahina U: Effective use of Zoom technology and instructional videos to improve engagement and success of distance students in Engineering. In: 28th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2017) 2017.
[ 5 ] Martin L, Tapp D: Teaching with Teams: An introduction to teaching an undergraduate law module using Microsoft Teams. Innovative Practice Higher Educ 2019, 3(3 ):58-66.
[ 6 ] Langford M, Damsa C: Online Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: Academic Teachers’ Experience in Norway. In., vol. Retrieved from https://www.jus.uio.no/cell/digitaldugnad/report-university-teachers-16-april-2020.pdf. University of Oslo, Norway: Centre for Experiential Legal Learning (CELL); 2020.
[ 7 ] Almarzooq ZI, Lopes M, Kochar A: Virtual Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Disruptive Technology in Graduate Medical Education. J Am Coll Cardiol 2020, 75(20):2635-2638.
[ 8 ] Lloyd C, Agnes D, Jayaraman R, Jothiswaran V: Web-Based Platforms for Virtual Learning. Biotica Research Today 2020, 2(5):184-186.
[ 9 ] Awedh M, Mueen A, Zafar B, Manzoor U: Using Socrative and Smartphones for the support of collaborative learning. Int J Int Technol Educ 2014, 3(4):17–24.
[ 10 ] Dervan P: Increasing in-class student engagement using Socrative (an online Student Response System). All Ireland J Teach Learn Higher Educ 2014, 6(3):1801–1813.
[ 11 ] Valdez L, Gray A, Ramos G, Siu H: Medical Education in Infectious Diseases. Using Smartphone Apps for Active Learning. In: Open Forum Infect Dis: 2017; 2017: S444.
[ 12 ] Dakka S: Using Socrative to enhance in-class student engagement and collaboration. Int J Integ Technol Educ 2015, 4(3):13-19.
[ 13 ] Faya Cerqueiro F, Martín-Macho Harrison A: Socrative in Higher Education: Game vs. Other Uses. Multimodal Technologies Interact 2019, 3(3):49.
[ 14 ] Kim K-J: Enhancing students' active learning and self-efficacy using mobile technology in medical English classes. Korean J Med Educ 2019, 31(1):51-60.
[ 15 ] Abdulla MH: The use of an online student response system to support learning of Physiology during lectures to medical students. Educ Inf Technol 2018, 23(6):2931-2946.
[ 16 ] Al Sunni A, Latif R: Determining the effectiveness of a cell phone-based student response system. J Taibah Univ Med Sci 2020, 15(1):59-65.
[ 17 ] Rae MG, O'Malley D: Using an online student response system, Socrative, to facilitate active learning of Physiology by first year graduate entry to medicine students: a feasibility study. MedEdPublish 2017, 6 (1), Paper No: 9
[ 18 ] Major S, Sawan L, Vognsen J, Jabre M: COVID-19 pandemic prompts the development of a Web-OSCE using Zoom teleconferencing to resume medical students’ clinical skills training at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar. BMJ Simulation Technol Enhanced Learn 2020.
[ 19 ] Karnad A: Student use of recorded lectures: a report reviewing recent research into the use of lecture capture technology in higher education, and its impact on teaching methods and attendance. In. London: LSE: School of Economics and Political Science; 2013.
[ 20 ] Rae MG, O'Malley D: Do prerecorded lecture VODcasts affect lecture attendance of first-yearpre-clinical Graduate Entry to Medicine students? Med teach 2017, 39(3):250-254.
[ 21 ] Lage MJ, Platt GJ, Treglia M: Inverting the classroom: A gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment. J Econ Educ 2000, 31(1):30-43.
[ 22 ] Tune JD, Sturek M, Basile DP: Flipped classroom model improves graduate student performance in cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal physiology. Adv Physiol Educ 2013, 37(4):316-320.
[ 23 ] Sahu P: Closure of Universities Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Impact on Education and Mental Health of Students and Academic Staff. Cureus 2020, 12(4):e7541-e7541.
[ 24 ] Schneider SL, Council ML: Distance learning in the era of COVID-19. Arch Dermatol Res 2020:1-2.
[ 25 ] Prensky M: Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the horizon 2001, 9(5):Retrieved from https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part21.pdf.
[ 26 ] Hunter E: Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis: Moving from Desperation to Hope in Theological Education. Insights J 2020, 6:1-10.
[ 27 ] Mohanty M, Yaqub W: Towards Seamless Authentication for Zoom-Based Online Teaching and Meeting. 2020:Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.10553.pdf.
[ 28 ] Vining CC, Eng OS, Hogg ME, Schuitevoerder D, Silverman RS, Yao KA, Winchester DJ, Roggin KK, Talamonti MS, Posner MC: Virtual Surgical Fellowship Recruitment During COVID-19 and Its Implications for Resident/Fellow Recruitment in the Future. Annals of Surgical Oncology 2020.
[ 29 ] Crawford J, Butler-Henderson K, Rudolph Jr, Malkawi B, Glowatz M, Burton R, Magni P, Lam S: COVID-19: 20 Countries' Higher Education Intra-Period Digital Pedagogy Responses. J Appl Learn Teach 2020, 3(1):1-20.
[ 30 ] Abdulla MH, O’Sullivan E: The Impact of Supplementing PowerPoint with Detailed Notes and Explanatory Videos on Student Attendance and Performance in a Physiology Module in Medicine. Med Sci Educ 2019, 29(4):959-968.
[ 31 ] Knight JK, Wood WB: Teaching more by lecturing less. Cell biol educ 2005, 4(4):298-310.
[ 32 ] Liu DY, Taylor CE: Engaging students in large lectures of introductory biology and molecular biology service courses using student response systems. In: Proceedings of The Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (formerly UniServe Science Conference): 2013; 2013.
[ 33 ] Smith MK, Wood WB, Adams WK, Wieman C, Knight JK, Guild N, Su TT: Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. Sci 2009, 323(5910):122-124.
[ 34 ] Smith MK, Wood WB, Krauter K, Knight JK: Combining peer discussion with instructor explanation increases student learning from in-class concept questions. CBE Life Sci Educ 2011, 10(1):55-63.
[ 35 ] Shah S, Cox AG, Zdanowicz MM: Student perceptions of the use of pre-recorded lecture modules and class exercises in a molecular biology course. Curr Pharm Teach Learn 2013, 5(6):651-658.
[ 36 ] Rowe S, Ellis A, Bao T: The evolution of audiographics: A case study of audiographics teaching in a business faculty. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ASCILITE conference: Who’s learning? Whose technology?, Ascilite conference. vol. 2. Sydney, Australia; 2006: 707–716.
[ 37 ] Basilaia G, Dgebuadze M, Kantaria M, Chokhonelidze G: Replacing the Classic Learning Form at Universities as an Immediate Response to the COVID-19 Virus Infection in Georgia. Int J Res Appl Sci Eng Technol 2020, 8:101-108.
[ 38 ] Rae MG, McCarthy M: The impact of vodcast utilisation upon student learning of Physiology by first year graduate to entry medicine students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 2017, 17(2):1-23.
[ 39 ] Tolks D, Romeike BF, Ehlers J, Kuhn S, Kleinsorgen C, Huber J, Fischer MR, Bohne C, Hege I: The online inverted classroom model (oICM). A blueprint to adapt the inverted classroom to an online learning setting in medical and health education. MedEdPublish 2020, 9.
[ 40 ] Moore S, Armstrong C, Pearson J: Lecture absenteeism among students in higher education: A valuable route to understanding student motivation. J High Educ Policy Manag 2008, 30(1):15-24.
[ 41 ] Herbelin B, Vexo F, Thalmann D: Sense of presence in virtual reality exposures therapy. In: Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Virtual Reality Rehabilitation: 03/18 2002; Lausanne, Switzerland; 2002.
[ 42 ] Roberts LD, Rajah-Kanagasabai CJ: " I'd be so much more comfortable posting anonymously": Identified versus anonymous participation in student discussion boards. Australas J Educ Technol 2013, 29(5).