This session took place as part of the 2021 Conference. The presenters were Heidi Baseler, Murat Aksoy, Alison Graham, Aziz Asghar.

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online learning presented a challenge to deliver laboratory-based teaching for medical students. Capitalising on this opportunity, we designed an innovative online teaching unit in which students became active researchers in an ongoing study on the effects of COVID-19 on memory function.

The ‘COVID-19 Online Rapid Objective Neuro-Memory Assessment’ (CORONA) study is a collaboration between academics in the Hull York Medical School and NHS clinical colleagues which went live in December 2020. As part of the Scholarship and Special Interest Programme for first-year medical students, tutors delivered live interactive online teaching exposing students to the entire process of conducting a research study, including experimental design and ethics, data analysis and scientific presentation and writing. Students researched the effects of COVID-19 on the nervous system, delivered online individual oral presentations, participated in data collection/analysis and wrote scientific reports on their findings.

Student feedback collected via an anonymous survey was overwhelmingly positive. Although students expressed a preference for acquiring laboratory skills in person, they found the online sessions engaging, informative and convenient, and advocated a blended learning approach in the future. Involving students in a live research study helped to facilitate online learning and successfully meet learning objectives to train medical students in the research process. This presentation would be of interest to educators seeking to engage students with research-led online teaching and learning.

You can access the recording of this session at this link here:

Developing research skills in medical students online using an active research study (UoY Panopto log-in required)