The digital acquisition of practical skills in the medical curriculum using the example of the ENT mirror examination – blueprint, learning success measurement and evaluation

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably catalyzed digitization processes in medical education. This opens up fields of innovative research, which must also show evidence in terms of student learning success. In particular, this applies to the acquisition of practical skills.

Objective It was exmined to what extent students can acquire practical skills within a purely digitally implemented ENT mirror examination and how sustainable the learning success is when students return after one semester. By referring to the study "Learning curve of the ENT mirror examination" by Polk et al. 2020, a comparison of online and face-to-face teaching can be drawn as well.

Materials and methods Within a five-day ENT internship, 146 students were taught 6 ENT mirror examinations via a videoconferencing system. Student performance was assessed daily in a testing group (PG, n = 48) and also in a control group (KG, n = 98) on day 5 using a standardized checklist. After one semester, the examination was retaken for PG (n = 29) and KG (n = 17).

Results Within the five days, PG showed a significant increase in performance on all partial examinations. For most partial examinations, PG’s and KG’s performance differed significantly, but these differences were largely undetectable after one semester. The results of online and face-to-face teaching showed great similarities.

Conclusion Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, students were able to acquire practical skills in the ENT mirror examination at a level of performance comparable to that of face-to-face teaching. The PG's daily formative examinations seemed to ensure a better examination routine at the end of the internship, but the PG students' results became more similar to those of the KG over time.

Publication History

Article published online:
24 May 2022