Saiful Islam, Yasna Palmeiro, Alexender Cozzi-Lepri, Saiam Ahmed, Mifuyu Akasaki, Rosamund Greiner, Carlos Valencia, Masuda Khanom, David Blundred (Institute of Neurology)

10 minute talk

COVID-19 has challenged learning and teaching (L&T) activities worldwide. During Term 1 (Sept-Dec) 2020-2021, we ran the “Research Methods and Introduction to Statistics” module online, facing challenges related to lecture delivery and teaching statistical software. As a response, a blended approach (pre-recorded lectures, slides and live session, instant response to the student queries) was adopted, including weekly student feedback surveys.
On average, we received 8 responses each week (n=66/120). After statistical analyses, we found that overall feedback improved weekly (Figure 1). Students valued live question and answer sessions. This feedback was reviewed weekly and assisted tutors to improve teaching in their subsequent sessions.

Although weekly response rate was low, the overall evaluation of this blended approach for teaching medical statistics was highly satisfactory. Weekly feedback is absolutely necessary to improve L&T activities. It helped improve tutors’ capability of teaching and if distance learning ordinance remains we would consider to repeat a similar approach in upcoming year(s).

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