Determining Required Teaching Methods in Distance Undergraduate Medical Education Based on the Non-University Learning Methods Medical Students Used During Covid-19: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

In order to improve the distance learning experience for undergraduate medical education, this study aims to evaluate the teaching methods used by universities in Jordan during the distance learning period and identify the best methods in this situation based on non-university educational avenues utilized by medical students during COVID-19. We conducted a survey of 195 medical students from universities across the country using a questionnaire that measures how dependent students are on educational resources provided by universities before and during the distance learning condition and looks into medical students’ most used non-university learning methods in face-to-face and distance learning conditions, and the extent to which medical students used them. We found that the main methods used by medical students for non-university learning were non-university educational videos like YouTube videos (92.8%) and non-university textual explanations (i.e., explanations on websites and summaries of materials made by other students) (67.7%). Before the remote learning situation, there was a large reliance on non-university learning materials, which rose significantly during the distance learning situation (p<0.001, r=0.54). We conducted a polychoric correlations-based Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) on 10 items, 7 of which were retained in the final model that revealed 2 factors, to analyze the relationship between the universities' educational methods used in distance learning and the non-university methods medical students used. The first factor reflected the change in “students’ use of non-university visualization learning methods in distance learning” (external videos, general dependence on non-university methods, and simulation apps had the highest significant loadings (>0.3)). The second factor reflected the change in “universities' use of visualization and interactive learning methods in distance learning” (deductive discussions, educational videos, and practical methods had significant loadings). A moderately negative correlation was detected between the two factors after applying a Promax rotation (r=-0.41), indicating that the decrease in universities' use of visualization and interactive learning aids in connection with insufficient visualization in the distance educational sessions increased students' use of the aforementioned visualized learning methods in distance learning. This study identifies the optimal visual teaching aids to improve distance undergraduate medical education.