The world is experiencing an unprecedented public health emergency owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. To control virus spread, many countries temporarily suspended classes. In this context, the availability of e-tools and distance learning platforms in higher education institutions has proven very useful to facilitate the emergency switch to distance learning to ensure continuity of the educational process. We discuss here the experience of the College of Pharmacy at Qatar University in responding to suspension of classes using available educational technologies. Furthermore, we provide some reflection points for optimal implementation of technology-enhanced learning into distance education for future academic years.

Video lecture capture is one of the most attractive e-tools that has been introduced to support students learning and assist with grasping difficult concepts. A variety of benefits is offered through this system introduced at our institution nearly a decade ago. We evaluated lecture capture viewings for professional undergraduate pharmacy courses in the Fall and Spring semesters over three academic years and analyzed data for one cohort of students. Each course within the pharmacy program was analyzed and viewing figures downloaded through the Echo360 management system. The average number of views per lecture, per semester was summarized. We observed that junior students viewed lecture capture most frequently with the number of views highest at the beginning of the academic year (Fall semester). Analysis of 18 courses which occurred 48 times over the three academic years studied, showed that 21 course occurrences had an average number of views per lecture equal to or higher than the number of students enrolled in the course, indicating that only 44% of courses had on average, at least, one student viewing each lecture recording. Of particular note, year 1 students had the highest percentage of courses viewed by a number equal to or higher than students enrolled (9 occurrences out of 16 or 56%), followed by year 2 students (9 occurrences out of 21 or 43%), and finally year 3 students (3 occurrences out of 11 or 27%). This pattern of lecture recording viewing was further underscored by longitudinally following-up the class of 2020 (24 students) over three academic years. To ensure optimal use of the system by both students and faculty for a multitude of learning and teaching styles and methods, we propose to implement professional development sessions for faculty to showcase the advantages of the lecture capture system and maximize the benefits from its availability. Further quantitative and qualitative studies are warranted to fully grasp the motivations for use, attitudes and perceptions towards the system.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic caused the sudden suspension of face-to-face classes in many higher institutions worldwide. To leverage preparedness of higher education in similar emergencies preventing on-campus classes, we aimed to understand some of the factors that facilitated the rapid switch to remote learning. Methods: We quantitatively analyzed how rapid switch to remote learning following pandemic (Spring 2020) impacted access to lecture-recording archives by undergraduate pharmacy students. The number of views per lecture for each course were mapped to the time of the day, weeks of the term and number of weekly assessments. Data were compared between Spring 2019 and 2020 in addition to analyzing differences before and after remote learning (Spring 2020). Findings: Weekly lecture-recording views after the suspension of in-person classes in Spring 2020 were higher compared to Spring 2019 (452 versus 291 views). Driven by viewing of the previous year’s archives (Spring 2019), the number of weekly views soared in weeks 11-13 (Spring 2020) compared to before coinciding with the sudden switch to online learning although all scheduled assessments in this period were postponed. This was confirmed by comparing views of Spring 2019 archives at two time points – November 2019 and September 2020. All courses studied had higher views per lecture in September 2020 compared to November 2019. Conclusion: Our study underscores the benefits of embedding lecture-capture systems to support student’s learning and leverage preparedness of universities to respond to emergencies preventing face-to-face classes.

Introduction: Video lecture capture has been introduced to support students learning and assist with grasping difficult concepts. A variety of benefits is offered through the Echo360 system introduced at our institution nearly a decade ago. Methods: We evaluated lecture capture viewings for professional undergraduate pharmacy courses in the Fall and Spring semesters over three academic years and analyzed data for one cohort of students. Each course within the pharmacy program was analyzed and viewing figures downloaded through the Echo360 management system. The average number of views per lecture, per semester was summarized. Results: Junior students viewed lecture capture most frequently with the number of views highest at the beginning of the academic year. Year 1 students had the highest percentage of courses viewed by a number equal to or higher than students enrolled (9 occurrences out of 16 or 56%), followed by year 2 students (9 occurrences out of 21 or 43%), and finally year 3 students (3 occurrences out of 11 or 27%). Longitudinal data was also gathered for the Class of 2020 over three academic years. Conclusion/future directions: Further quantitative and qualitative studies are warranted to fully grasp the motivations for use, attitudes and perceptions towards the system. To ensure optimal use of the system by both students and faculty for a multitude of learning and teaching styles and methods, professional development sessions for students and faculty can be implemented to display the advantages of the lecture capture system and maximize the benefits from its availability. This study has now been published.