Has pedagogy, technology, and Covid‐19 killed the face‐to‐face lecture?

Abstract

The lecture has been around for centuries and has featured as a popular and frequent component in higher education courses across many disciplines including anatomy. In more recent years, there has been a growing shift toward blended learning and related pedagogies that encourage active participation of students in both face‐to‐face and online learning environments. Unfortunately, in many cases, the lecture, which has typically focused on the transmission of information from educator to student has not been adapted to become a more learner‐oriented approach with opportunities for students to actively interact and engage. As a result, the future of whether the lecture should continue has once again become a center of debate. The consequence of the Covid‐19 pandemic and its aftermath have added to this with institutions now looking to stop all lectures or offer them in an online format only. This commentary argues that lecture‐style components could still feature within face‐to‐face and online provision, but only if they are used sparingly within a blended curriculum, have a defined use that aligns well to learning outcomes, are assessed as the most effective method pedagogically, and importantly integrate approaches and activities that promote student engagement. Anatomy educators have demonstrated for years that they are able to be at the forefront of pedagogical change and evidenced during the pandemic their agile and innovative ability to adapt and do things differently. Therefore, the fate of the lecture, at least in anatomy, may well be in their hands.

The freedom to teach (at the best)

“…The “sage and on the stage” and the “guide on the side” analogies have been widely utilized to critique didactic lectures as passive and less engaging for students 35 . Instead, active learning modalities are being promoted as better strategies to stimulate students' interest and to promote deeper and more sophisticated learning outcomes 36,37 . New didactic alternatives like the flipped classroom model and team‐based learning have been developed and introduced with some success 38–42 .…”

“…35 Instead, active learning modalities are being promoted as better strategies to stimulate students' interest and to promote deeper and more sophisticated learning outcomes. 36,37 New didactic alternatives like the flipped classroom model and team-based learning have been developed and introduced with some success. [38][39][40][41][42] Many of these novel educational approaches also enable peer instruction as a very powerful way of supporting successful learning.…”

“…The decision whether to return to in-person lectures, an exclusively online format, or a combination of the two is complex and possibly involves more factors than are discussed in this and other commentaries. 36,52 It should consider the strengths and abilities of the teaching staff, some of whom may excel in and prefer other teaching formats than lectures. Local conditions and personal preferences of educators and learners also need to be taken into account.…”

“…With the social distancing restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic ending, schools have to decide whether to keep the online and recorded lecture format, return to the pre-pandemic format, or compromise on a mixture of online and face-to-face instruction.A recently published Viewpoint article in Anatomical SciencesEducation discussed the technological and educational aspects of replacing traditional lectures and viewed the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity for adopting non-traditional forms of instruction 36. It should be noted that the following discussion in this paper will not address laboratory and other educational settings, which need to be judged using different sets of criteria.The institutions of the authors exemplify different directions that were taken by school and curriculum administrators.…”

On the added benefit of virtual anatomy for dissection‐based skills

“…[57][58][59] A recently published study warns that anatomy lectures will perish unless the most effective pedagogical methods and interactive learning are integrated. 60 Therefore, a curriculum combining radiology and classical anatomy teaching methods 15 with modern 3D visualization techniques may be a complementary approach.…”