Submission ID 78293
| Code | OF-1-2 |
|---|---|
| At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: | |
| Category | Medical Education |
| Type | Oral |
| Will the presenter be a: | Early Career Faculty - (Less than 7 years of practice) |
| Title | Math Club: Creating Safe Learning Spaces in Virtual Environments |
| Background/Purpose | Math Club is an educational program series that was created to increase Psychiatry resident's confidence and ability in interpreting quantitative statistics. This program was created to address a curricular gap identified by residents, based on their observation that many residents frequently comment on their discomfort working with quantitative data presented in primary literature. Through participation in the Math Club workshops, residents learned to: identify, compare and contrast various types of quantitative data; advance their understanding and ability to critique statistical methods applied to quantitative findings in clinical research; and, to use quantitative findings to inform their clinical communication and decisions with patients, families and colleagues. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the program was transitioned to virtual teaching. This transition highlighted differences in how the program was received by learners, including enhanced sense of vulnerability in participating in interactive components. Our data suggest that transition to virtual learning environments, while feasible, require attention from educational design in the creation of engaging activities among participants. |
| Methods | Qualitative and quantitate data was collected over three academic year (pre and post virtual teaching). Formative assessment measures, collected pre and post workshop, measured participant confidence and ability in using and applying qualitative research to clinical care. Standardized course evaluation was used to assess program content, presenter effectiveness and recommendations for each workshop. |
| Results | Learner confidence and ability increased over the Math Club Series. It was an acceptable curricular intervention from participants. When workshops were separated into pre- and post-virtual delivery, while there continued to be improvement in pre- and post-virtual delivery; it became less favourably evaluated. The interactive activities becomes more uncomfortable for participants and enhanced sense of vulnerability in participating in the workshop. |
| Discussion | Math Club is an acceptable and feasible intervention to support the delivery of evidence based practice in medical trainees. With the transition to virtual teaching, the Math Club series continued to show significant improvement in confidence and ability in understanding and applying qualitative research to clinical care; it did suggest enhanced vulnerability to participating in educational activities. This offers important considerations for medical educators as we consider how to transition constructivist-based activities to virtual environments. |
| Keyword 1 | Evidence Based Medicine |
| Keyword 2 | Quantitive Research |
| Keyword 3 | Virtual Teaching |
| Abstract content most relevant to: (check all that apply) | Residency Education
Undergraduate Medical Education |
| Abstract Track - First Choice | Curriculum |
| Curriculum | Case-Based Competency-Based Education General Quality improvement |
| Authors | Alexandra Manning |
