Good practices in asynchronous e-learning — a short guideline document for Polish medical teachers — a pilot study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: E-learning is gaining popularity also in medical education. It offers students unlimited access to educational materials, helps meet their individual preferences by adapting various learning styles, and is considered to be at least as effective as traditional lectures. However, this can only be true provided that e-learning is of good quality. Short guidelines may be used to familiarise medical teachers with good practices in e-learning, but they should meet the needs of their users, and some areas may require more attention. They should be identified, and medical teachers should be provided with additional resources covering them. This study aimed to develop a short guideline for Polish medical teachers and determine potentially troublesome areas. MeThODS:A detailed review of the literature was performed to create a guideline on preparing and conducting e-learning classes. The most important items from it were listed as an evaluation template and pre-tested on a sample of 10 e-learning courses in a search for areas requiring more attention. ReSUlTS:Half of the courses did not provide students with a syllabus, and none of them clearly defined intended learning outcomes. Also, adult learning concepts were not introduced satisfactorily. Only seven out of 10 courses used activities at all, and they often tested simple knowledge reproduction, were limited to poorly-written test questions, and placed at the end of lessons. CONClUSIONS:In this pilot study three potentially troublesome areas were identified: defining learning outcomes, application of adult learning theory, and choice of activities.

Distance Learning and Assessment During the COVID-19 Pandemic—Perspectives of Polish Medical and Healthcare Students

“…Online learning, also known as distance learning or e-learning, has great potential, and its importance was already increasing before the pandemic (Abbasi et al, 2020). Similarly, many of its benefits were already described in the literature, including greater flexibility, comfort, and time savings (Abbasi et al, 2020; Przymuszała, Cerbin-Koczorowska, et al, 2020). Furthermore, during the pandemic restrictions, it remained the only option available, leaving many educational institutions with the choice of either e-learning or no learning at all.…”

“…However, most of the academic staff had no prior experience in preparing and conducting distance learning classes. In order to promote the use of innovative techniques at PUMS, different faculty development initiatives were implemented, including workshops in the NESTOR [ Nauczyciel – EkSpert – TutOR (Teacher - Expert - Tutor)] program ( Projekt NESTOR ) and the development of guidelines on asynchronous e-learning (Przymuszała, Cerbin-Koczorowska, et al, 2020) or writing multiple-choice questions (Przymuszała, Piotrowska, et al, 2020), for example.…”