Assessing webinar outcomes for health professionals: a perspective from Indonesia during coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Abstract

Purpose With the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, health institutions and hospitals are increasingly relying on e-learning for continuing education. However, in many countries there is still limited data on the effectiveness of online learning particularly in the healthcare field. This study aims to evaluate whether webinar as a form of online educational intervention is satisfactory and effective for the continuing education of health professionals in Indonesia. Methods We collected participants’ demographic information including health profession, place of work, work unit, and year of graduation. There were six independent webinars included in this study. Webinar outcomes included satisfaction and learning scores. Regarding satisfaction, participants were told to complete a satisfaction survey and asked whether they would recommend the webinar to their colleagues. Regarding learning, information on their mean pre-test and post-test scores was collected. Results A total of 3,607 health professionals were enrolled, with the highest participation in webinars about emergency cases and COVID-19 management. The response towards satisfaction was overwhelmingly positive. In all six webinars, post-test scores were statistically significantly higher than pre-test scores. Recently graduated physicians scored higher in learning than senior physicians, while place of work and work unit did not significantly affect the scores. Conclusion The use of webinar for health professionals training in Indonesia was well-received amid the ongoing pandemic. In the future, health institutions and teaching hospitals should optimize the implementation of webinar training as it is associated with low cost, high flexibility, and less time commuting.

Evaluating knowledge retention and perceived benefits of medical webinar for professional development among Indonesian physicians

“…The questions in the knowledge test covered clinical aspects of various diseases encountered in daily practice, which included their etiology, pathophysiology and pathogenesis, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, management, and prevention. This result further supported the findings in our previous study, in which we also discovered that physicians who graduated more recently (2015–2020) had higher average post-test scores than physicians who graduated in 2014 or prior in all six webinars [ 11 ]. We hypothesized that most recently graduated physicians could engage better with the webinar series and hence absorbed the material better than senior physicians.…”

“…Additionally, ensuring interactivity in learning is arguably one of the biggest challenges in conducting an online CME course. Although the i-CORPS webinar series has anticipated this problem by encouraging the instructors to be engaging, for example, using the “chat” and “polling” features in Zoom [ 11 ], this remains a limitation worth considering for future online CME courses. An interactive learning experience was associated with better knowledge retention, and failure to establish a two-way communication involving feedback may negatively affect participants’ attention span and retention level [ 17 ].…”

“…This research is a follow-up study from our previous research that evaluated participants’ satisfaction and learning outcomes following the i-CORPS (Interactive Course for General Practitioners) webinar series held by Universitas Indonesia Hospital [ 11 ]. The hospital is a teaching hospital that is part of a prominent medical school in Indonesia, the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia.…”

Evaluation of the Impact of Webinar Training in Comparison to Conventional Training on COVID-19 Risk Perception in Emergency Medical Technicians

“…Formerly, other studies assessed the evidence regarding the benefits of webinar teaching as an educational intervention for health professionals. Edward Christopher Yo et al (27) mentioned that the use of webinars for health professionals training in Indonesia was wellreceived amidst the outbreak pandemic. Also, Bhattarai et al (28) reported that teaching through a webinar was an invaluable instrument for medical education, particularly during the need of social distancing.…”

How to do a journal club, a seminar and a webinar?

“…Against the backdrop of the pandemic, webinars have become popular alternatives amongst PGs to regular departmental seminars, although the attendance rate is variable. [ 18 ]…”