COVID-19 and medical education: Rethinking student assessment—The Virtual Observational Standard Clinical Examination.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges for medical education. In particular, student assessment posed some of the most urging questions. How do we evaluate practical skills when our universities are on lockdown and our hospitals are working on a shortage of personnel? Is it possible to evaluate these skills via online means, mitigating the effects in students career development? This paper presents an online evaluation experience implemented at Instituto Oncológico Henry Moore-Universidad Del Salvador, Buenos Aires in the postgraduate program of Clinical Oncology. The Virtual Observational Standard Clinical Examination (VOSCE) is a technology-based adaptation of the Observational Standard Clinical Examination (OSCE) (JCO 34 (15), Abstract e18150, 2017) implemented in previous years. Methods: The VOSCE took place in November 14, 2020 and consisted on a half-day evaluation during which students rotated through 8 stations (Table). The exam ran on three platforms: Blackboard Collaborate for the interactive elements of all stations;University online campus (Moodle platform) for student questionnaires, and Google Forms for the evaluators assessment of each student. Students and evaluators participated in various training sessions, and were given a month to practice before the exam. All interactions were recorded and an anonymous survey on students experience and opinions was conducted after the exam. Results: A total of 25 postgraduate Oncology students participated in the V-OSCE. 24 students (96%) completed all stations on time with minimum or no network connection issues. Student opinions: 24 students completed the exam experience anonymous survey;23 found the exam tech-friendly and valued the practice time provided. When asked to score the exam in a scale of 1 to 10: 80% of the students ranked the exam with 9 or 10;and 20%, with 7 or 8. Conclusions: A) It is feasible to design new ways to assess medical students via online means. B) The experience of an OSCE can be translated to an online environment with minimum technological requirements. C) The COVID-19 pandemic effects are extensive, with serious implications in medical education. However, it has proved to be an opportunity to rethink our educational practices, design innovative formative experiences, and assess new skills that will remain significant even long after the pandemic has ended.