Engagement and learning approaches among medical students in an online surgical teaching programme: A cross-sectional...

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the transition of all teaching and learning of final-year General Surgery students to an online platform. Despite the utility of online methods, challenges exist such as a sense of impersonal learning, and poor student engagement. Student engagement with course content is important for deep learning. An Online Student Engagement Scale (OSE) and a revised Biggs Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) were used to evaluate student engagement and learning approaches respectively.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 at a South African university. The OSE and R-SPQ-2F online survey tools were administered to all final-year students (n = 325) enrolled in the surgical online module. Quantitative data was collected, and the data was analysed statistically using R-Statistical computing software. Results are presented in the form of descriptive and inferential statistics. The reliability of the tools was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha.

The survey response rate was 35.4 % (115/325). Students were engaged at a high level, and the median (IQR) scores of the OSE tool were 71.0 (63.0-78.0). Overall, students adopted a deep approach (DA) to learning, with median (IQR) scores of 34.0 (30.0-39.0) on the R-SPQ-2F tool. There was a moderate positive correlation between the total OSE score and DA (0.53, p < 0.001). Both the OSE and R-SPQ-2F tools showed an acceptable level of internal consistency of 0.893 and 0.806 respectively.

Student engagement was associated with deep learning approaches. The OSE and R-SPQ-2F tools were reliable tools to measure student engagement and learning approaches among medical students.