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Background: International electives provide students an opportunity to experience diversity in educational content and the impact of social settings on health-care delivery. Primary eye care provided by optometrists is a crucial aspect of the ocular health chain. Optometrists play a large role in the early diagnosis and prevention of ocular diseases. Knowledge and skill acquisition in ocular diagnostics involving a spectrum of diseases that students have fairly limited exposure to in Urban Australian settings would go a long way in ensuring the wholeness of the optometry curriculum. Methods: The International Elective in Tropical Eye Disease and Community Eye care (TEDCE), based in a tertiary teaching eye hospital in South India, intended to impart this body of knowledge. This study is an educational-program evaluation study that assessed the change in knowledge, skills, and attitude of 10 International Optometry Students before and after TEDCE. Knowledge and skill were measured using multiple choice questions (MCQS) and objectively structured clinical examination (OSCE). Attitude OSCEs was quantified using the the readiness for inter-professional learning scale questionnaire. Results: The pretest MCQ showed a mean score of 44.40 ± 6.22 and posttest MCQ improved to 51.80 ± 3.85. Similarly, the pretest OSCE showed a mean score of 7.10 ± 1.52 and posttest OSCE improved to 12.05 ± 2.58. Qualitative questionnaire analysis indicated that students had better chance to understand interprofessional benefits and limitations. Conclusion: The analysis of the results indicates a positive impact of intervention with respect to knowledge, skills, and attitude gained.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of an audio visual (AV) teaching module on basic torchlight examination of the eye and direct ophthalmoscopy for undergraduate medical students. Methods: This observational longitudinal study was done on 33 consecutive medical interns during their Ophthalmology posting from December 2019 to March 2020 at a medical college in South-India. An AV-module was created using animation graphics, narratives, demonstrations on normal individuals and on patients with positive signs. All interns had a pretest consisting of Multiple-choice questions, (MCQs) and an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) on torchlight examination and direct ophthalmoscopy (DO). They were then shown the 20-minute AV-module. A posttest was performed immediately and after one week. Results: The mean pretest MCQ score was 5.84 ± 1.98. It improved to 8.81 ± 1.15 in the immediate posttest and 8.87 ± 1.66 in the one-week posttest. The mean pretest OSCE score was 12.21 ± 3.39. It improved to 23.21 ± 3.39 in the immediate posttest and 23.90 ± 3.7 in the one-week posttest. Using Generalized Estimating Equation, MCQ score improved by 2.97 units and 3.03 units and the OSCE score improved by 11 units and 11.69 units in the immediate posttest and one-week posttest respectively when compared to the pretest corresponding to the MCQ score and OSCE score (p < 0.001). Conclusion: AV teaching modules-for torchlight examination and DO has a significant benefit in improving knowledge and skill in undergraduate medical students. These significant results have the great translatory capacity in the current COVID-19 pandemic, where physical demonstrations involving close proximity and groups of students are highly risk prone.