Changing methods of education under a pandemic - questionnaire survey about nuclear medicine examination classes at educational institutions -

Introduction: COVID-19 has now spread around the world. Its effects go far beyond healthcare. For example, education must currently be carried out in a way that is consistent with infection prevention for students and faculty members. This has led to changes in the provision of education at educational institutions in Japan, including in nuclear medicine examination. We wanted to see what changes had been made in the educational methods at different educational institutions, to ensure the ongoing quality of training for radiological technicians. We conducted a survey on educational methods and new initiatives used in nuclear medicine examination classes at Japanese educational institutions since the start of the pandemic.

Methods: We sent the questionnaire to 19 Japanese educational institutions. It included a survey of the class format and new initiatives in nuclear medicine examination classes in 2020. We also investigated the training format and new initiatives in hands-on training in 2020.

Results: The format of nuclear medicine examination lectures varied by educational institution, but included remote lectures, video on demand, and hybrid lectures (combined remote and face-to-face lectures). To enhance the effect of these new educational formats, schools had tried different options including strengthening the ability to ask questions, strengthening the confirmation test, improving task management, and introducing an e-learning system. Some institutions had continued traditional face-to-face lectures with stronger infection control measures. For hands-on training, most educational institutions used traditional face-to-face methods, with strengthened infection control measures. Some had reduced the time spent on campus for training and allowed students to watch videos covering the content of hands-on training. Some provided practical training in a hybrid format.

Conclusions: Educational institutions had introduced various educational methods and new initiatives. They all prioritized students’ understanding of lectures and tried to use what they considered to be the best educational methods. Sharing information about the changes in different educational institutions should enable them all to continue to develop good radiological technologists even during a pandemic. Acknowledgements: We thank teachers in charge of nuclear medicine examination classes at each educational institution who responded to the questionnaire. We also thank Melissa Leffler, MBA, from Edanz Group (https://en-author-services.edanz.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.