Experience of online physiology laboratory teaching for undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional face-to-face human physiology teaching for students at Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat university, Pathumthani, Thailand since February 2020. Online curriculum for both lectures and laboratory sessions were developed to continue the education. This work compared the effectiveness of online physiology labs to the traditional onsite counterparts for 120 dental and pharmacy sophomore students during 2020 academic year. The method used was a Microsoft Team synchronous online laboratory experience consisted of eight topics. Faculty lab facilitators created protocol, video script, online assignments and instruction note. Group lab instructions prepared and delivered the content for recording and led student discussion. Data recording and live discussion were synchronized and executed. The response rate for the control (2019) and study groups (2020) were 36.89 and 60.83%, respectively. The control group reported higher satisfaction, compared to the online study group. The online group rated the laboratory online experience with equal satisfaction to that would be of an onsite lab experience. Onsite control group reported 55.26% satisfaction with equipment instrument while only 32.88% online group voiced their approval on this measure. It was understandable because the excitement in physiology work relied heavily on experiences the work (p<0.05). With the same difficulty index of both academic year examination papers, the non-significant different of academic performance of the control and study (59.50±13.50 and 62.40±11.43, respectively showed the effectiveness of our online synchronous physiology lab teaching. The conclusion was physiology learning experience could be appreciated online when a good design was achieved.