Medical Histopathology Laboratories: Remote Teaching in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic. 2021

Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy, Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, University of Texas Health San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.

The COVID-19 pandemic required the rapid conversion of medical school curricula to virtual instruction. Prior to the crisis, histopathology teaching laboratories at UT Health San Antonio included completion of an Individual Laboratory Quiz before the laboratory session, a Team Application Exercise released and completed during the laboratory session with guidance from faculty, and a graded Team Laboratory Quiz at the end of the laboratory session. Adaptation of this interactive, in-person activity to a fully online platform included releasing the Team Application Exercise earlier to provide ample time for students to work virtually with their teams, conducting laboratory sessions using Microsoft Teams, with 5 to 6 teams led by a single instructor, and requiring the Team Laboratory Quiz to be taken individually for ensuring quiz security and test integrity. For incentivizing collaboration while completing the Team Application Exercise, the final score was either the student's individual score on the Team Laboratory Quiz or their team's average, whichever was higher. Comparison of student scores on the modified Team Laboratory Quiz to Team Laboratory Quiz scores using the earlier laboratory format prior to COVID-19 showed a significant decline; however, scores on other weekly quizzes or examinations were unaffected. Students welcomed the early release of Team Application Exercise and easier access to faculty but indicated that the modified Team Laboratory Quiz decreased peer-teaching and learning experience and increased anxiety. Faculty indicated the loss of personal interaction with students as a major theme. These data suggest that novel pedagogical approaches are required for online histopathology instruction to accommodate differences in learning styles while maintaining the benefits of team collaboration.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
February 2022, Annals of diagnostic pathology,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
November 2021, Annals of laboratory medicine,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
September 2020, Future medicinal chemistry,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
January 2020, Psychotherapy and psychosomatics,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
January 2021, GMS journal for medical education,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
October 2020, Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
May 2020, Cancer cytopathology,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
October 2021, Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
January 2023, Revista brasileira de enfermagem,
Ramaswamy Sharma, and Thomas S King, and Elizabeth R Hanson, and Kristin Fiebelkorn
August 2023, Medical science educator,
Copied contents to your clipboard!