Undergraduate Radiology Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Teaching and Learning Strategies

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has altered how medical education is delivered, worldwide. Didactic sessions have transitioned to electronic/online platforms and clinical teaching opportunities are limited. These changes will affect how radiology is taught to medical students at both the pre-clerkship (ie, year 1 and 2) and clinical (ie, year 3 and 4) levels. In the pre-clerkship learning environment, medical students are typically exposed to radiology through didactic lectures, integrated anatomy laboratories, case-based learning, and ultrasound clinical skills sessions. In the clinical learning environment, medical students primarily shadow radiologists and radiology residents and attend radiology resident teaching sessions. These formats of radiology education, which have been the tenets of the specialty, pose significant challenges during the pandemic. This article reviews how undergraduate radiology education is affected by COVID-19 and explores solutions for teaching and learning based on e-learning and blended learning theory.

Medical student education in the time of COVID-19: A virtual solution to the introductory radiology elective

“…In radiology, technological advances in image archiving and viewing have lent themselves well to remote learning for medical students. 14 , 15 Advances in web-conferencing and student response system software have also contributed greatly to our ability as radiologist educators to offer students a robust and interactive virtual learning experience. 16 , 17 Using these innovative teaching strategies, other investigators have demonstrated great success with virtual radiology electives and virtual core clerkship in radiology.…”

Medical Student Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Initial Experiences Implementing a Virtual Interventional Radiology Elective Course

“…As students return to clinical service and participate in cases, a "blended-learning" model may be considered to encourage physical-distancing whenever possible. Blended-learning combines online education, either in the form of virtual synchronous or asynchronous learning, with in-person place-based teaching methods (14). This would allow students to be physically present for IR clinical activities and procedures, an irreplaceable aspect of traditional IR clinical rotations, while participating in morning conference, didactic lectures, and other learning activities virtually.…”

Curriculare Lehre während der COVID-19-Pandemie

“…Auch wenn es sich bei dieser Arbeit nur um die Evaluation eines Kurses handelt, zeigen die Daten, dass onlinebasierte Lehrkonzepte in der Radiologie vielfältig anwendbar sind, und es sich dabei, vergleichbar zu Studien aus Amerika und Großbritannien [2][3][4][5][6]11], um ein zukunftsträchtiges Konzept handelt. Daher sollte man an der weiteren Optimierung der Onlinelehre arbeiten.…”