Transformation to learning from a distance

Abstract

COVID-19 is a strong disruptive force that has not only influenced our global health and economy but also has changed the way we teach, learn and communicate with our students. It has disturbed the regular education pattern and the standard practices that we adapted over many years. The challenge is beyond changing the mode of delivering instructions from face to face to online. The real challenge is in creating a culture that supports the adoption of innovative practices, which require different skills and competences from the teacher, student, mentor and administrator, and at the same time maintaining the quality of the products. In other words, changing what was exceptional to be the norm over a short period of time. This article describes our approach "Open Learning" in managing such change. Our over-riding philosophy is about ensuring that students have high quality resources, and the enthusiasm and learning skills to benefit from them. At the same time we want to optimise the use of the available online applications and learning management system so that their use is within the capability of our faculty. This paper describes the evolution of our approach and the principles upon which it has been based. Our experiences over the past few months will transform the educational experience of our students over the years to come.

Developments in medical education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid BEME systematic review: BEME Guide No. 63

“…The synchronous components of these were similar to those described above. The asynchronous components involved making recordings of previous lectures available and making additional learning resources available through curation or de novo creation (Taylor et al 2020;Veasuvalingam and Goodson 2020). In the papers that used asynchronous approaches, emphasis was placed on the need for organization and structure to support learning in the virtual environment.…”

“…This section is a summary of the lessons learned and conclusions by the primary study authors, rather than the review authors views. Most authors described the introduced changes in positive terms, using statements such as 'overwhelmingly positive,' 'very positive,' 'high quality,' 'highly satisfied' in 7 studies ( Finn et al 2020; Khan 2020; Rose et al 2020), 'positive' or 'valuable' or 'useful' in 4 studies (Choi et al 2020;Gaber et al 2020;Lubarsky 2020;Taylor et al 2020), 'successful' or 'sufficient' or 'equivalent' in 7 studies (Buonsenso et al 2020;Burns and Wenger 2020;Christensen et al 2020;Hanel et al 2020;Rasmussen et al 2020;Torres et al 2020;Ungtrakul et al 2020). No study was reported by the authors as wholly unsuccessful or unfeasible, however, some developments were noted to be less desirable than in-person activities, most notably among activities replacing clinical placements (Chick et al 2020).…”

Model for Utilizing Distance Learning post COVID-19 using (PACT)™ A Cross Sectional Qualitative Study

“…A hybrid curriculum is what is needed with a clear distinction of the red ags for each experience (6). Distance learning is itself a form of blended learning, using a variety of coordinated and planned modalities and methods to deliver the curriculum and enable students to learn effectively (7).…”

“…In DL learners can be lost when there is too much emphasis on self-directed learning. This led experts to renown self-directed learning when describing best DL practices (7).…”

“…Distance learning is a whole system which integrates a wide variety of elements for curriculum coverage. These might include print, use of resources, practical classes, technology-based methods, face-to-face learning, individual and group work and many others (7).…”