Moving from tangibility toward digitalization: investigating team dynamics and facilitator support among medical students in conventional and digital small-group tutorials

BACKGROUND: Small group tutorials (SGT) promotes self-directed learning and is widely used in medical education. The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has accelerated the trend toward SGT digitalization, with unclear effect. We hypothesize that team dynamics and facilitator support influence SGT satisfaction in digital versus conventional SGT. METHODS: During the spring semester of year 2021, medical students (the second, third, and fourth year; n = 433) participating in conventional face-to-face and digital SGT curricula were enrolled. Participating students completed the collaborative learning attitude scale (including team dynamics, team acquaintance, and facilitator support dimensions) and teamwork satisfaction scale, previously validated for small-group collaborative learning, and chose preference between conventional or digital SGT in future curricula. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to extract the essential structural factors of these scales. Paired t-tests were conducted to compare differences in different dimensions and satisfaction between the conventional and digital SGT settings. Two sets of multiple regression analyses were done; one with team satisfaction scale results and the other with preference for digital SGT as the dependent variable were used to evaluate determinants of these two variables. RESULTS: The EFA results revealed that the original collaborative learning attitude scale was concentrated on two dimensions: team dynamics and facilitator support. No significant differences were noted between the SGT settings for the two dimensions and teamwork satisfaction. Regression analyses showed that teamwork dynamics was independently correlated with teamwork satisfaction in both conventional and digital SGT. Facilitator support was positively correlated with teamwork satisfaction in conventional, but not digital SGT. Higher teamwork satisfaction was an important determinant of preference for digital SGT among medical students. CONCLUSIONS: Team dynamics were closely linked to teamwork satisfaction among medical students in both conventional and digital SGT, while the role of facilitator support became less obvious during digital SGT.