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.
