Medical students perceptions of virtual learning stations as an innovative teaching tool: a qualitative study

Deficiencies in students' interaction and motivation to learn are among the most reported challenges in medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a need to find new methods to overcome these challenges. We implemented a virtual learning station (VLS) approach in pathology lectures about locomotor diseases carried out over 2 weeks. The study was performed at the Faculty of Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt. We assessed students' satisfaction and their perceptions of the method used qualitatively via a narrative survey. Common themes in the narratives had been extracted and a coding book had been developed where a brief definition and description of each code had been included. Response rate was 88.8% out of 304 participating first-year students. Most students (93.5%) were satisfied with the VLSs. Extracted themes of students' perceptions were categorized into advantages, limitations/disadvantages, and recommendations to improve the approach. Regarding the advantages, seven subcategories, namely, knowledge, skills, learning environment, self-efficiency, content & technique, focusing, and feedback, were extracted. Students mentioned the long duration, less collaborative teams, and connection problems as the main limitations/disadvantages. In addition, regarding recommendations, four subcategories, namely, generalization of experience, frequency of repetition, feedback, and duration of sessions, were extracted. So, VLSs can be an innovative learning solution for online medical lecturing in the COVID-19 era to overcome the lack of students' interaction and motivation to learn.