Experience of online physiology laboratory teaching for undergraduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional face-to-face human physiology teaching for students at the Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Thailand since February 2020. An online curriculum for both lectures and laboratory sessions was developed to continue the education. This work compared the effectiveness of online physiology labs to the traditional onsite counterparts for 120 dental and pharmacy sophomore students during the 2020 academic year. The method used was a Microsoft Teams synchronous online laboratory experience consisting of eight topics. Faculty lab facilitators created protocols, video scripts, online assignments, and instruction notes. Group lab instructors prepared and delivered the content for recording and led the student discussion. Data recording and live discussion were synchronized and executed. The response rates for the control (2019) and study (2020) groups were 36.89 and 60.83%, respectively. The control group reported higher satisfaction about general laboratory experience, compared to the online study group. The online group rated the laboratory online experience with equal satisfaction to that of an onsite lab experience. The onsite control group reported 55.26% satisfaction with the equipment instrument, while only 32.88% online group voiced their approval of this measure. It was understandable because the excitement in physiology work relies heavily on the experience of the work (P < 0.027). With the same difficulty index for both academic year examination papers, the nonsignificant difference in academic performance of the control and study groups (59.50 +/- 13.50 and 62.40 +/- 11.43, respectively) showed the effectiveness of our online synchronous physiology lab teaching. In conclusion, the online physiology learning experience was appreciated when a good design was achieved.