Impact of Online Knowledge and Skills Learning on Millennial Learners Within Emergency Medicine: A Retrospective Data Review

Background: Emergency Medicine didactic teaching has traditionally been delivered through face-to-face (F2F) lectures. However, during the pandemic of COVID-19, the didactic teaching was switched to online through using Microsoft Teams. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of online learning in the knowledge and skills acquisition of millennial learners based within emergency medicine. Methodology: This was a retrospective review of assessment data. Over a period of 10 months (August 2019 to June 2020), each resident was exposed to traditional F2F teaching for a period of four months and then online teaching in a crossover manner. After each method, there were two types of assessments, multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and computer-based objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). A total of 20 MCQs with one correct answer, totaling 20 marks, and 20 OSCEs consisting of an image or a video with five options, each option carrying one mark, totaling 100 marks were used at each assessment point. A student t-test was used to compare the two groups of results. Results: The total number of participants was 49 (n=49). All residents belonged to the millennial generation. Fourteen were female and 35 were male. The mean MCQ 1 score after F2F teaching was 12.16 (SD=1.688), whilst the mean MCQ 2 score after online teaching was 13.40 (SD=1.861). The mean computer-based OSCE 1 score after F2F teaching was 64.45 (SD=5.895), whilst the mean OSCE 2 score after online teaching was 65.57 (SD=5.969). Ten out of 49 students (20.4%) failed the MCQ exam after F2F teaching, whilst 6/49 students (12.2%) failed the MCQ test after online teaching. Seven out of 49 students (14.3%) failed the OSCE exam after F2F teaching, while six out of 49 students (12.2%) failed the OSCE exam after online teaching. There was a statistically significant improvement in the MCQ score after online teaching as compared to F2F teaching (P-value 0.0003), whilst there was no statistically significant change in the OSCE between the two-teaching methods (P-value 0.3513). Conclusion: Both F2F and online teaching methods resulted in a significant improvement in the knowledge and skills of emergency medicine residents. Online education resulted in a statistically significant improvement of MCQ score as compared to F2F teaching. The difference in MCQ score may be due to millennial learners, who traditionally benefit proportionately more from self-learning that is primarily online.