Assessing the Publicity and Reach of Peer-Led Online Medical Teaching: A Single-Event Evaluation

Abstract

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption to higher education, including medical studies. Online learner support became urgently necessary, and peer-support of learning was needed to supplement formal teaching. This study evaluates the impact and delivery media of OSCEazy, a student-led initiative supporting formal teaching across institutional and national boundaries. Methods: A survey was created on Google Forms and disseminated via the Zoom chat function to all the participants at the end of our event titled, “The Cardiology Station”. Results: A large proportion (99.5%) of the students have a Facebook account and (98.7%) use it to keep track of medical events (p=0.45 for comparison). However, a very small proportion of use their other social media to keep up with medical events (p<0.0001 for comparison). Conclusion: It is evident from our results, that most of our participants used Facebook to keep track of medical events. The use of their other social media platforms (Instagram, etc) to keep track of medical events was limited. Thus, it is important for any organisation, such as ours, who conduct online events to evaluate which platform is most suitable for them to use to publicise their events.