Online learning and COVID-19: a meta-synthesis analysis.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Online Learning
• Pandemic Response

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic forced medical schools to transition from in-person to remote e-learning rapidly.
• This transition occurred without the benefit of planned e-learning program development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To meta-synthesize experiences from past pandemics regarding online education.
• To describe the specific e-learning transition at São Paulo University School of Medicine.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was conducted across multiple databases (Cochrane, Medline, EMBASE, Lilacs, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC).
• Keywords included various pandemic-related terms (SARS, MERS-CoV, COVID-19) and online education terms (e-learning, online course, flipped classroom) combined with social distancing measures.
• Endpoints focused on platforms, class models, interaction types, lecture duration, and perceptions of students and teachers.

Main Results:

• Out of 38 retrieved records, only seven articles specifically addressed online education during pandemics with social distancing.
• Zoom® was the most frequently utilized online platform.
• Both synchronous and asynchronous learning models were examined, but no conclusive evidence on lecture duration or attitudes of students and teachers was found.

Conclusions:

• The rapid shift to online learning in medical education during the pandemic was feasible.
• The unplanned nature of this transition necessitates further research into the educational structures and their long-term impact.