Medical students' examinations during the pandemic: Performance and perceptions of anatomy teaching and learning before, during, and after COVID-19 lockdowns.

Abstract

Numerous methods of distance learning were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic that critically impacted the medical education landscape. This study assessed the anatomy learning performance of first-year medical students in both theoretical and practical examinations before, during, and after COVID-19 lockdowns and surveyed their perceptions and experiences of online anatomy courses. Participants comprised 725 first-year medical students, with 435 from the Polish Division (PD) and 290 from the English Division (ED), and were initially organized into four cohorts according to the anatomy course completion year: 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Looking into educators' and students' teaching and learning experiences during the pandemic, a major performance reduction was observed among students learning online, which lasted throughout the academic year following the resumption of in-person classes. The practical aspects of online examinations using digital images showed the most pronounced reduction in performance, whereas the change in theoretical examination scores was less marked. The shift to online learning exposed underlying curriculum shortcomings that persisted even after the return to in-person classes, highlighting the need for comprehensive curricular revisions to sustain improvements in anatomy education. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on constantly improving the efficacy and quality of teaching and learning anatomy in the ever-changing medical education landscape.