Share your online teaching experiences

Online learning and teaching have made a key contribution to medical education over the past few months, and the AO network has been at the forefront of this advance. We invite you to share your online teaching experiences with us, so that we can share them with AO faculty across the clinical divisions and unit. To share your story, contact us via e-mail.

Online learning and teaching have made a key contribution to medical education over the past months, and the AO network has been at the forefront of this advance. We invite you to share your online teaching experiences with us, so that we can share them with AO faculty across the clinical divisions and unit. To share your story, contact us at faculty.development@aofoundation.org.

Our experience in online education

In this interview, Waleed A Alsaadan (Iraq) and Khalid Alawadi (United Arab Emirates) from AO Trauma Middle East and Northern Africa (AO TMENA) share their experiences and best practices gained from chairing the AO Trauma Online Course—Soft-Tissue Care in Trauma, July 9–August 3, 2020.

Was this your first live, online course as chairpersons?

Despite chairing many events in the pre-online era, this was our first course that we chaired online.
We chaired a local webinar for AO TMENA on a different platform, so we were forced to face problems that need to be anticipated as a faculty, chairpersons, and hosts.

What was your overall experience with this course?

We chaired the course during the COVID-19 era which came with a decrease in surgeries and working hours, so that we were able to spend more time on this course. We learned a lot about online events and challenges and developed our way of managing them.

We prepared many different materials for this course, such as:

Course promotional material
Illustrated information for faculty and participants on the meeting platform
Tips for improving internet connection for participants
An illustrated, step-by-step blueprint of the first live session for the faculty
A summary of the chairpersons’ report, describing the steps and challenges faced, which was shared with all faculty after the course

The "Ten tips to enhance your camera presence" published by AO was useful.

If we shall chair an online course again in the future, we shall modify the precourse participant survey and include some specific questions that additionally identify participants’ types of practice.

Based on your experience, what is the main challenge/difference when chairing a live online course versus chairing a face-to-face, on-site event?

Pros:

Less course costs
Less burden on the faculty members’ work schedule
Time periods between sessions allow for adjustment of content according to the session feedback
New opportunities for the communication with participants outside of the sessions' broadcast times, such as replying to participants notes, running quizzes, and providing additional information.
Faculty precourses before each session strengthened personal relations.
Tools and performance improve with every subsequent session and additional course.

Cons:

Lack of hands-on practical exercises
Online courses require as much preparation as face-to-face, on-site courses.
Faculty miss the eye contact and other interactions with participants.
Recording of course material by participants could not be controlled (copyright).

What is your advice to future chairpersons and faculty of live, online courses?

Course chairpersons need to ensure that both faculty and participants enter the first session with full awareness of the program, the efficient use of the meeting platform, and every faculty role.

Internet connection issues can affect the flow of material, perception, and final evaluation of the course. This should be taken into consideration when designing the program.

The geographical distribution of participants might influence the mode of delivery of the course content. The better the internet connections of faculty and participants, the more interactive presentations are possible.