Remote Learning & Why I (Somewhat) Prefer it to In-Person

Confessions of a Second Year Medical Student:

Starting university in the middle of a global pandemic was no easy task…

I was part of the infamous first Covid-Cohort of Medicine in the 2020/21 academic year. My first year of Medical School consisted of attending plenaries, small group sessions and clinical skills sessions all from the comfort of my little first year student flat. When speaking to most of my peers and friends about their experience of first year, they cannot express enough how much they despised remote learning and how much they are loving this year being in person for most things. However, this enthusiasm is then often replaced with shocked and horrified expressions when I tell them how I somewhat preferred last year’s online remote learning.

Please don’t get me wrong, finally getting to see my course mates face to face, not merely their names on a black laptop screen has been great! I have also met new people and formed cherished friendships that will help me through both medical school and my career as a healthcare professional for years to come. Yet, somehow I cannot help but slightly yearn for last year’s remote learning. And no, before you think it’s because I preferred learning about the pathophysiology of heart failure in my pyjamas (albeit a major advantage when the temperature outside was colder than my fridge and there was a risk I’d be blown over into France if I stepped outside), I feel that the main underpinning reason for feeling this way is down to how much more overwhelmed and stressed I have felt this year, in comparison to last year.

Adjusting to new teaching:

I appreciate that this may be partly due to the fact that progression through medical school will inevitably be accompanied by content that gets more complex and difficult to comprehend. I also understand that this feeling may have been further exacerbated by the sudden and drastic change in the way the content is delivered and taught. Last year, while initially a challenge, I made the most of the remote learning and I found myself easily staying on top of the expected workload, along with having time to consolidate learning and revisit topics that I found harder to comprehend. Conversely, this year, I have really struggled to ensure I keep on top of work and deadlines to the same extent, driven by my strong academic passion and eagerness to learn. This gave rise to levels of stress I have never experienced before, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety over being unable to balance everything in the way I managed to last year.

Remote learning allowed me to more efficiently integrate my time management and organisation skills to make sure I was able to complete tasks that needed to be done, and allowed me to feel a better sense of control over my own learning. In addition to this, by learning online, plenaries and smaller group sessions were recorded and subsequently uploaded for consolidation purposes, which I fully utilised to ensure I understood the more difficult concepts to the best of my ability. However, in-person sessions this year are not recorded, and their fast-paced nature often leaves no time to even process the information, let alone fully understand it. This means I have found myself having to actively do more self-directed learning to make sure I do not compromise my understanding of the topics covered. Additionally to this, I feel much less able to organise my time efficiently, which is a skill that was highlighted on the first day of medical school as essential to have as both students and as future healthcare professionals. Added to that, some sessions run longer than their allocated time, scrambling any time organisation I had planned prior to the session; this only promoting my stress levels further.

Benefits of in-person:

Despite this, I cannot deny how much more beneficial learning anatomy in-person has been. Anatomy models and interactive boards have thankfully replaced the anatomy teaching of last year, which saw us trying to understand the 3D anatomy of the human body through a 2D pixelated screen. I have also found that clinical skills sessions on communication are also much more useful when you can see the person you are communicating with, not just their names on a screen. Along with this, the support my academic leads and tutors have given myself and my peers has been second to none. They have worked to the utmost of their ability to help us through these changes; their encouragement exceeding anything I could have ever expected to get at University.

I can also fully appreciate how the adapting to new ways of learning and development of new and more efficient time management skills has aided me in having a greater ability to deal with high stress situations and balancing difficult workloads. This increased ability to deal with stress and not let it impact on my ability to perform to the best of my ability will inevitably benefit my future practice. I will be able to integrate these skills within clinical environments, where adapting to change and efficient time management will be essential in ensuring maximum health and wellbeing of patients, colleagues and myself.

Nobody Said Medical School Would Be Easy:

However, the rapid adaptation to a completely new style of learning was daunting, especially after already having to do this in the transition between A Levels to University. Combined with the need to develop completely new time management skills to stay on top of an ever-increasing workload to maintain a high academic performance, it comes as no shock that this, for many, has only led to further stress; potentially outweighing the stress of being taught remotely.

This being said, I understand how the reintegration of in-person teaching needed to happen to allow for a return of what most saw as “normal”, even though for myself and my cohort, online learning was our “normal”. And even with the stress that has risen from this, I must admit, there is a certain comfort that arises when you are sat in a session where complex pathological processes are being taught, and you look around and see everyone else in the group being just as baffled as you are. It comes as a subtle and often needed reminder that if you feel confused, chances are so does everyone else, and that is perfectly normal. After all, nobody ever said it would be easy, did they?