Framework for Curriculum Delivery During COVID‑19 Pandemic in a Health Sciences University Hanan M Al-Kadri1,2, Mohamed Al Moamary1,3, Bandar Al Knawy1,3
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Hot Topic Framework for curriculum delivery during COVID‑19 pandemic in a health sciences university Hanan M Al-Kadri1,2, Mohamed Al Moamary1,3, Bandar Al Knawy1,3 1Department of Obstetrics Abstract: and Gynecology, College This article aims to shed light on the management that was taken by the King Saud Bin Abdulaziz of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University University for Health Sciences to accommodate the immediate needs for online curriculum delivery, for Health Sciences, in response to the total lockdown due to COVID‑19 pandemic. We have described the process done, Departments of 2Obstetrics actions implemented, and challenges faced to manage the curriculum delivery during the pandemic and Gynecology, and to plan the subsequent year curriculum delivery. Effective management will be enhanced by 3Medicine, King Abdulaziz focused faculty development, curriculum management, assessment planning, and technical support. Medical City, Riyadh, We believe that the management done can be taken as a model in similar situations where sudden Kingdom of Saudi Arabia online curriculum delivery is deemed necessary. Further audit on the effectiveness and implication of these actions is required after the end of the pandemic. Address for Keywords: correspondence: Coronavirus disease‑2019, curriculum, pandemic, university Prof. Hanan M. Al‑Kadri, College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health he outbreak of coronavirus disease‑2019 significant challenges on the educational Sciences, PO Box 57374, T(COVID‑19) caused by the severe acute process in the world. These challenges were Riyadh 11574, Riyadh, respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has even more prominent whenever teaching, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [3] E‑mail: halkadri@gmail. rapidly progressed and was announced and assessment of soft skills was required. com as a pandemic by the World Health The educational process in health science Submission: 15‑08‑2020 Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. institutions was therefore significantly [2,4] Accepted: 16‑08‑2020 The WHO announcement has encouraged compromised in the affected countries. Published: 01‑09‑2020 governments around the world to take serious The aim of this commentary is to highlight actions to contain the infection and stop its the challenges for health science education spread. These actions have included economic, and the proposed framework to deal with it social, and educational restrictions, resulting in the academic year that will commence on from the total lockdown of countries.[1] The the fall of the year 2020. global lockdown by governmental authorities led to suspension of academic activities Challenges for Health Science that has prevented millions of students Education from attending their schools and colleges; therefore, online curriculum delivery became During the pandemic, health science the only available option for these educational educational process has faced the following organizations to resume their services during Access this article online three main challenges. the lockdown.[2] The precautionary actions Quick Response Code: that were taken aiming to stop the spread of The first challenge was the ability to maintain the virus had serious implications and posed and guarantee curriculum delivery integrity, its assessment, educational outcome This is an open access journal, and articles are achievement, and curriculum objective distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons fulfillment.[1,5,6] Due to the total lockdown, Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work Website: non‑commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and www.thoracicmedicine.org How to cite this article: Al‑Kadri HM, Al Moamary M, the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Al Knawy B. Framework for curriculum delivery during DOI: COVID‑19 pandemic in a health sciences university. 10.4103/atm.ATM_493_20 Ann Thorac Med 2020;15:185‑9. For reprints contact: [email protected] © 2020 Annals of Thoracic Medicine | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‑ Medknow 185 Al‑Kadri, et al.: Curriculum delivery during COVID‑19 pandemic frequent practical sessions were replaced by online stood as major struggles.[2,17] A complete online course sessions. Teachers were asked abruptly to change their delivery requires an elaborated structure design, teaching methods and initiate online teaching without delivery methods and teaching materials, presence of previous preparation or orientation.[7] Students, on the other audio and video‑designed instructions, and well‑trained hand, had to cope with these sudden changes in teaching technology support teams. Due to the sudden emergence methods, despite the possible connectivity problems, of COVID‑19 pandemic, most faculty across the world resources constraints, and variations in knowledge and have experienced challenges related to inadequacies in skills related to online learning.[5,8,9] A large proportion of their online curriculum teaching experience, training, practical curriculum objectives in the curricula of health and support from educational technology teams.[10] science colleges that were difficult to be delivered via online tools had made health science students’ potential Following the WHO pandemic announcement and the victims of COVID‑19 pandemic, due to the interruption of implementation of the total lockdown in Saudi Arabia, their educational process. Educational administrators had the Ministry of Education (MOE) has announced the need to carefully balance between students’ safety, educational for immediate online delivery in all Saudi Universities on standard, and their responsibility toward the community March 9, 2020. MOE has done major efforts to support the in graduating skilled and safe practitioners.[1,4,10] universities by online platform, expand its capacity, and facilitate students’ online education. Furthermore, MOE The second challenge that had affected health science took major actions to protect students’ education, their institutions was the impact of COVID‑19 pandemic future opportunities, and cumulative grade point average.[19] on the reliability and validity of students’ assessment. On top of many other decisions, continuous assessment was Health science education requires students’ exposure given heavier weight up to 80% and online assessment was to clinical setup not only for learning but also during recommended with multiple assessment tools to enhance assessment.[11,12] Aligning curriculum assessment with reliability.[20] its instruction methods is an important and strongly recommended principle.[13,14] Assessment of curriculum King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for portions that were delivered through a real‑life setup Health Sciences Framework for Curriculum before COVID‑19 pandemic was a major challenge in the presence of the total lockdown.[1] Several teaching Delivery during Coronavirus Disease‑2019 hospitals had announced the presence of COVID‑19 cases Pandemic between medical students, resulting in suspending them from attending their clinical training and its related King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health continuous assessment process.[15‑17] The prolonged Sciences (KSAU‑HS) is a health science university in pandemic and the fear of getting students infected with Saudi Arabia that has three campuses in Riyadh, Jeddah, the COVID‑19 have restricted exposure to workplace and Al‑Ahssa. The university has a total of 12 colleges skills, causing an unavoidable effect on examination including three Colleges of Nursing, three Colleges of competency and performance.[17] Moreover, the situation Applied Medical Sciences, two Colleges of Medicine, was more complex for those students heading for high one College of Pharmacy, one College of Dentistry, one stakes examinations and final‑year examinations. Those College of Science and Health Profession, one College students had lost their last chance for senior‑level clinical of Public Health and Health Informatics, and Deanship exposure to real‑life clinical situations that could have of Postgraduate Studies. KSAU‑HS has six master sharpened their skills and improved their educational programs that are closely related to health sciences outcomes before their final assessment and the subsequent and is attached to the Health System of the Ministry independent practice.[18] As a result, COVID‑19 pandemic of National Guard‑Health Affairs, one of the largest has affected health science education in two main medical institutions in Saudi Arabia. These clinical aspects: (1) difficulty or inappropriate delivery of institutions are known to host the largest postgraduate curriculum objectives that require clinical exposure center in Saudi Arabia that graduates residents in all and (2) difficulty and inappropriate clinical assessment the basic clinical specialties and most of the major that requires this exposure. subspecialties. KSAU‑HS has approximately 10,000 undergraduate students and interns, while its health The third challenge was the faculty preparedness to an system accommodates approximately 23% of national abrupt shift from traditional campus‑based curriculum trainees in more than 150 residency and fellowship delivery to exclusively online curriculum delivery. academic training programs in Saudi Arabia. Within days, university faculty had to shift into online education. The variability between universities in In response to the COVID‑19, precautionary actions information technology infrastructure, experiences, forced