Doubling down on best practices: reflecting on teaching physiology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

As we pass the third anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic, it is beneficial to reflect upon how physiology education adapted to the challenges of the pandemic. At the initial stages of the pandemic, many educators were faced with the challenge of quickly transitioning to emergency remote teaching (ERT), requiring shifts in teaching methodology and laboratory structure to adapt to the pandemic normal. In this review, we provide a broad overview of the efforts made by the community of educators associated with the American Physiological Society during the pandemic to encourage best practices in teaching, maintain course and program goals during ERT, and innovate in physiology education. We also highlight diversity, equality, and inclusion work that was produced as the scientific community recommitted to tackling systemic and structural inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic and brought to the forefront by the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, we examine the potentially long-lasting effects of the pandemic on education from both the student and faculty standpoints and how doubling down on what we learned can be beneficial to the future of physiology education. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This literature review examines and categorizes the repository of publications in physiology education that occurred during and related to the COVID-19 pandemic