Synchronous distance teaching of radiology clerkship promotes medical students’ learning and engagement

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted education in myriad ways, primarily leading to an abrupt paradigm shift in teaching and learning practices towards distance learning. The study aims to assess the effectiveness of teaching radiology to undergraduate medical students using synchronous distance learning compared to traditional on-campus learning through exploring students’ perceived satisfaction and concerns. Students’ perceptions were correlated with their attendance, grades, and frequency of technical difficulties. METHODS: The study was designed as an observational study involving fourth-year medical students (2019/2020) from two institutions. The cohort students were exposed to traditional learning, distance learning, or both. Students completed an online self-administered questionnaire concerning their perceptions of distance learning. Students’ attendance, engagement, technical difficulties, and post-clerkship knowledge assessments were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: A total of 145 participants completed the clerkship using the following strategies: traditional learning (n = 66), both traditional and distance learning (n = 67), and distance learning alone (n = 12). The most important result indicates that the abrupt transition to distance learning was well perceived. Most students preferred distance learning over traditional learning in the radiology clerkship (p = .05). During the synchronous sessions, student attendance was high, reaching to 100%. Technical difficulties were limited (1.9%), and they did not affect learning. CONCLUSION: Synchronous distance teaching promotes learning, interaction, and enjoyment in undergraduate radiology education, and it can be as effective as traditional on-campus learning. The technical difficulties encountered, although they were limited, can be overcome by recording the synchronous sessions.