Slack as a virtual undergraduate dermatology community: a pilot study

Dermatology is under-represented in UK undergraduate curricula, and with a diagnostic and educational toolkit that is heavily centred on face-to-face (F2F) clinical examination, dermatology education has been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Online channel-based messaging apps such as Slack offer an opportunity to engage students in remote, multimodal collaborative learning by reproducing a classroom environment in the virtual space.

To determine the feasibility, acceptability and proof of concept for an online Slack community in undergraduate dermatology education.

Undergraduate medical students participated in an online classroom for a 6-week programme encompassing case-based discussions, seminars and journal clubs. The platform was facilitated by junior doctors (n = 10) and patient educators (n = 6). Students and faculty completed a post-course evaluation. Students additionally completed a pre- and post-intervention dermatology quiz. Mixed methods analyses included quantitative analyses to explore data trends and qualitative phenomenographic analyses to assimilate key underlying themes.

Students (n = 65) were enrolled to join the platform. The evaluation was completed by students (n = 52) from UK universities (n = 27). The majority of students (n = 27) interacted with the platform as passive observers (≤ 5 active interactions with the channel), with a small group (n = 4) of 'super-users' (≥ 100 active interactions). The overall quality of the course was described as 'excellent' by 96% of participants and 100% of faculty.

A community-based online classroom can act as an enjoyable, acceptable and collaborative means of delivering dermatology education to undergraduate medical students. Its ease of use and supportive nature may also facilitate patient involvement. Such advances may provide vital safeguards against the reduction in F2F learning that has accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic.