Abstract:

The COVID 19 pandemic scenario forced universities around the world to adopt new pedagogical strategies to deal with the new situation. Initially, under the period of total lockdown (from March to June 2019) Spanish centres switched classes from the traditional face-to-face model to a fully online procedure. The following academic year the universities adopted different methodologies and approaches to cope with the circumstances of the moment. Our Faculty of Medicine opted for a bimodal educational approach in which synchronous sessions would be followed face-to-face by half of the students and remotely by the other half. To support this challenge, our university equipped all campus spaces with the appropriate devices (microphones, cameras, TV screens, touch devices, institutional Zoom accounts, loudspeakers, etc.) and extensive wireless connectivity to ensure the smooth running of the classes. In addition, a training itinerary was offered to teachers and administrative staff to expand digital and technological skills to meet the new demands. Our Faculty of Medicine also designed a methodological strategy to facilitate the development of the classes, encouraging communication and integration of remote students within the class, and adapting the contents and activities to the new class model (master class followed by a questionnaire carried out with Socrative; discussion of clinical cases in mixed groups -on-site and remote students-; Flipped and PBL classes using explanatory videos; etc.). All lessons were recorded and made available to students from the zoom platform of each subject. Finally, a technical support team of 4 people was available in our building from 8:00 to 21:00 from Monday to Friday. At the end of the academic period, we set out to study the impact of the new model on aspects such as motivation and grades. We also collected students' and teachers' opinions on technological and methodological issues. For this purpose, the Department of Innovation and Pedagogy designed two anonymous forms (for students and teachers separately) to collect opinions on the above-mentioned issues. In addition, we compared the overall scores of students in each subject of the course with those of the previous year in order to detect possible significant changes. Several conclusions emerged from the analysis of the opinions. Both students and teachers particularly emphasise the usefulness of videos and recordings. The students say that the teacher's digital competences are insufficient. One aspect that has been pointed out as an area for improvement is the communication and interaction between teachers and students connected remotely during lessons. In addition, students pointed out that the mixed group work (consisting of face-to-face and online students) was not at all useful and should be reconsidered. In terms of the marks achieved by the students, a slight increase in the final scores has been detected (the data are still under analysis). This paper describes the main features of the new pedagogical approach and deepens on the impact it has had on learning and teaching.

Keywords:

COVID 19, bimodal education, Medicine, Spain.