PLASTA National Webinar Series: A developing model for remote surgical education

Use of online educational resources before and during the COVID-19 era in oral and maxillofacial surgery

Restrictions to traditional face-to-face meetings were mandated by many government authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting the delivery of educational training sessions for maxillofacial surgery trainees in the traditional group manner. An online survey was designed to review what effect the pandemic had on the use and uptake of online educational sources amongst a representative cohort of maxillofacial surgery trainees in higher specialist training. Their attitudes and satisfaction with online resources were considered. The use of live sources such as webinars and pre-recorded materials (e.g. YouTube videos) was investigated. Engagement with online sources was considered prior to, and then during the pandemic. Alterations in the behaviour of trainees were demonstrated, with increasing online resource use seen once the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Online pre-recorded resource use increased by 26% during the pandemic, with the median number of hours watched per month increasing from 1-5 h to 5-10 h (p < 0.001). Engagement with live online sources (webinars) increased by 52% and median time watched increased from 15 h per month to 10-20 h per month (p < 0.001). Trainees expressed satisfaction with the quality and flexibility of the resources. There was a firmly positive response to live webinars with regard to teaching quality, audio and video quality, ease of access and relevance to training needs. Pre-recorded and live online resources may prove a useful alternative or adjunct to face-to-face teaching when regulations limit or restrict social interactions.

International Microsurgery Club Webinar Series-Bridging the Knowledge Gap during the COVID-19 Pandemic

PURPOSE

 The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak shut down most conferences. To minimalize the influence, virtual meetings sprang up subsequently. International Microsurgery Club (IMC), as one of the largest professionals-only online microsurgery education groups worldwide, began to host regular weekend webinars during the pandemic to fill the knowledge gap. This study aims to discuss how webinars have fundamentally changed the way knowledge is delivered and exchanged.

METHODS

 From February 29, 2020 to March 14, 2021, 103 IMC webinars were reviewed and analyzed in detail to determine the use, benefit, and effect. A comparison between webinars hosted by the different societies was made as well. A questionnaire survey focusing on attendees' behavior, attitude, and using habit about webinars was also made.

RESULTS

 As for the 103 IMC webinar events, the peak participants were 112.3 people in average. The members requesting to join IMC abruptly increased during the pandemic, and the group activity increased dramatically. From the questionnaire (n = 68), the satisfaction level was high (8.88 ± 1.18/10). The respondents were most satisfied with the good quality of the speakers (73.5%). Not only hosts our webinar series but IMC also serves as the platform that welcomes webinars from other societies to share their information. In September 2020, International Microsurgery Webinar League was established via the significant webinar hosts, with more than 300 recorded webinar talks connected successfully.

CONCLUSION

 As the knowledge revolution driven by COVID-19 will continue, IMC will keep playing an essential role in exploring new and emerging opportunities to improve knowledge dissemination worldwide beyond the space-time boundary.

International cross-sectional survey on the use of webinars in plastic surgery: a move towards a hybrid educational model

Background

The novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has catalyzed the development of online educational resources. Webinars provide opportunities for convenient distance-learning and provision of expert lectures, while reducing the financial and practical costs of attending conferences. This cross-sectional survey aims to collect subjective opinion on the usefulness of webinars as an educational platform compared to face-to-face interactions, and whether surgeons and surgeons-in-training want webinars to remain a permanent platform for training and development in the future.

Methods

A free-to-attend online series of international expert lectures on a range of plastic surgery topics was delivered. Attendees were invited to anonymously complete a survey on attitudes towards webinars as an educational platform over a 2-week period.

Results

A total of 883 complete responses were collected. Overall webinar attendance increased following the pandemic, with 97.4% of respondents reporting they view webinars for at least 1 h per week following implementation of COVID-19 restrictions. 90.4% respondents indicated that they intend to continue utilizing webinars even once COVID-19 restrictions are eased, and 77.8% stated they learn as much from online webinars as in-person lectures. However, irrespective of training grade, a significant proportion of respondents believe webinars should not replace face-to-face meetings.

Conclusions

This study provides evidence that, while face-to-face meetings remain a valued component of education in Plastic Surgery, webinars are a useful adjunct to conventional methods, and may feature more prominently in the educational landscape of the future.Level of evidence: Not gradable.

Providing national level teaching to OMFS specialty trainees in a virtual classroom setting using learning theories of education

COVID-19 has resulted in an expansion of webinar-based teaching globally. Socially distanced e-learning is the new normal. The delivery of regional OMFS teaching programmes in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, for Specialty Trainees (ST's) under the Joint Committee on Surgical Training (JCST) and Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Programme (ISCP) umbrellas is variable. We recognised the need to provide additional teaching to supplement this teaching, at a time of crisis in our countries and healthcare systems, which had jointly led to a significant impact on the progression of training. The membership category of Specialty Trainees within the national specialty association-the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) is Fellows in Training abbreviated to FiT. We designed an OMFS FiT (Fellows in Training) webinar series based on the current Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) curriculum. Senior trainers delivered weekly national web-based teaching using learning theories of education. Thirteen webinars were conducted between the 14th of May and the 4th of August 2020. Webinars were attended by 40-75 ST's with 98 percent of trainees rating the webinars as 'excellent' or 'very good', and 99% found the content 'extremely useful' or 'very useful'. We discuss the learning theories used for this teaching which include - Bloom's taxonomy, Bruner's spiral model, Vygotsky's zone of proximal development, the flipped classroom model, and Knowles' andragogy model. This pilot national teaching programme has been extremely well received by OMFS trainees and is here to stay!