Pertinent Trends
Rheumatology professionals quickly embraced many important behaviors to enhance virtual learning in response to COVID-induced restrictions.
Effective collaboration plays a key role in current rheumatology eLearning. When many programs were forced to put in-person educational activities on pause, several joined together to create online options. For example, rheumatologists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston organized a multiprogram online journal club that included both local and out-of-state participants.6 In similar fashion, The George Washington University School of Medicine cooperated with institutions in Washington, D.C., to hold monthly online clinical-pathologic (CPC) style conferences.7
The ACR/ARP also sponsored multiple online offerings, including the Virtual Rheumatology Learning (ViRL) Collaborative, which created a nationwide on-demand core lecture series for fellowship programs.8
Such collaborations alleviate individual burdens and quickly generate useful eLearning content. Moreover, the online format enhances access: Developers report rheumatology learners from numerous locations are easily able to participate and attendance has been several times higher than pre-pandemic levels.6,7
Educators have also combined real-time and asynchronous virtual learning opportunities. This amalgamation offers flexibility by making information available at the click of a mouse, while still allowing interpersonal and social interactions, albeit through a screen.7,8
When assessing learners’ clinical skills, many rheumatology programs leverage the nature of telehealth to their advantage. This format affords the chance to unobtrusively view trainees without distracting from the patient-clinician interaction. Telehealth allows preceptors to gain a view of the learner’s skill set as they navigate the many facets of a clinical encounter, but still intervene at any moment if needed.7,8 If patients and regulations allow, appointments can also potentially be recorded so trainees can view themselves and perform self-assessments.
Practical Considerations
What should you anticipate when implementing eLearning into your teaching program?
The social disengagement of virtual learning exacerbates participants’ boredom and contributes to virtual learning fatigue. Combating this boredom is key to maintaining learner motivation—and mastery of the material.9
Just as children are drawn to educational play, “gamification” can incentivize adult learners through interactions with point-
scoring systems, time-trial competition and other interactive elements.7
Strategically pausing eLearning activities to employ active engagement techniques, such as guessing at study outcomes, predicting diagnoses or reciting key learning points, can enhance virtual learning.
Similarly, virtual seminars can easily incorporate interactive elements and audience participation via real-time polling or other question-and-answer methods. Virtual breakout rooms can facilitate role-playing, smaller discussion groups or even standardized patient encounters to maintain social connections and mimic in-person learning exercises.7
eLearning audiences may be large or multi-institutional, so consider combining virtual learning with local follow-up activities or even in-person sessions. These pursuits should be tailored to the needs of the particular learner group to enhance understanding and further exploration.
Large groups can make getting through a presentation confusing if the speaker is also being bombarded with questions or sifting through a chat box. Appointing a moderator to sort through and consolidate questions can avoid unnecessary interruptions.
Transitioning to virtual learning takes a large investment, but eLearning can also help save time and effort. For example, instructors can reuse successful sessions as a reference for future trainees by keeping a database of their video presentations. Such a resource can also be targeted as a framework or preview for future learning.7
