ArticleJMIR medical education2023
Teaching Medical Microbiology With a Web-Based Course During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Before-and-After Study.
Article in JMIR medical education, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Investigating virtual versus hands-on interventions in promoting increased performance, perceived knowledge, and confidence in a large general microbiology course.Journal of microbiology & biology education · 2026Article
- Microbial Art Fixation on Agar Plate: MicArt Fixation for Microbiology Teaching.Journal of basic microbiology · 2025Article
- Dental Students' Satisfaction With Web-Based Learning During the Initial Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has imposed unprecedented hurdles on health care systems and medical faculties alike. Lecturers of practical courses at medical schools have been confronted with the challenge of transferring knowledge remotely.
objectiveWe sought to evaluate the effects of a web-based medical microbiology course on learning outcomes and student perceptions.
methodsDuring the summer term of 2020, medical students at Saarland University, Germany, participated in a web-based medical microbiology course. Teaching content comprised clinical scenarios, theoretical knowledge, and instructive videos on microbiological techniques. Test performance, failure rate, and student evaluations, which included open-response items, for the web-based course were compared to those of the on-site course from the summer term of 2019.
resultsStudent performance was comparable between both the online-only group and the on-site comparator for both the written exam (n=100 and n=131, respectively; average grade: mean 7.6, SD 1.7 vs mean 7.3, SD 1.8; P=.20) and the oral exam (n=86 and n=139, respectively; average grade: mean 33.6, SD 4.9 vs mean 33.4, SD 4.8; P=.78). Failure rate did not significantly differ between the online-only group and the comparator group (2/84, 2.4% vs 4/120, 3.3%). While lecturer expertise was rated similarly as high by students in both groups (mean 1.47, SD 0.62 vs mean 1.27, SD 0.55; P=.08), students who took the web-based course provided lower scores for interdisciplinarity (mean 1.7, SD 0.73 vs mean 2.53, SD 1.19; P<.001), opportunities for interaction (mean 1.46, SD 0.67 vs mean 2.91, SD 1.03; P<.001), and the extent to which the educational objectives were defined (mean 1.61, SD 0.76 vs mean 3.41, SD 0.95; P<.001). Main critiques formulated within the open-response items concerned organizational deficits.
conclusionsWeb-based courses in medical microbiology are a feasible teaching option, especially in the setting of a pandemic, leading to similar test performances in comparison to on-site courses. The lack of interaction and the sustainability of acquired manual skills warrant further research.
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