E-learning in medical education during COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences of a research course at Kenya Medical Training College

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Abstract Background E-learning has been widely adopted as a teaching and learning approach in medical education internationally but its adoption in low- and middle-income countries is still at an infantile stage. The use of e-learning may help to overcome some of the barriers to access to quality education and provide flexible, low-cost, user-centred, and easily updated learning. Research can inform improvement in health care, but strategies to develop research skills among health practitioners are complex and require well-designed training. To address the need for research education, we developed and implemented an e-learning course on patient safety research for students enrolled for higher diploma courses at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC). In this paper, we report our experience teaching the online research course in resource-constrained settings to enable other medical educators, students and institutions in similar settings to understand approaches to incorporating e-learning interventions. Methods The eLearning research course is hosted on the Colleges’ Moodle Learning Management System (LMS). All higher diploma students admitted to the college in the 2020/21 academic year were enrolled on the course. The research course was delivered over 60 hours, but the course materials (text, videos, images, discussion forums, downloadable content) remain accessible to students throughout the academic year. A pretest, posttest, peer-graded assessment and course evaluation were administered on the e-learning platform. The students were expected to conduct individual research projects after the training. Results A total of 933 students undertaking 44 higher diploma courses in 11 campuses of KMTC were enrolled in the course. There was a significant increase in the mean knowledge level of students: scores for pretest (Mean = 56.5%, SD = 14.3) and posttest (Mean = 67.8%, SD = 8.9); t (122) = 7.85, p < .001. Student and faculty experience was generally positive. The challenges included infrastructure and technological skills. The standardization of material and team-teaching improved efficiency, effectiveness and inter-faculty discourse on inter-professional collaboration in research. Conclusion Our results suggest that e-learning can be used to teach research but there is a need for technological investment and institutional e-readiness.

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