Factors affecting medical students' satisfaction with online learning: a regression analysis of a survey.

BACKGROUND: Medical education requires the implementation of different teaching methods and strategies for future doctors to achieve broad learning objectives. This wide range of methods and strategies includes the use of Information Technologies. For a long time, there was a call for a change in medical education for blending new teaching approaches to lessen medical students' class time. The COVID-19 pandemic then sped up the transition to the new way of medical education and classroom lectures were quickly moved to a virtual environment. We expect that these changes will continue, and online learning will be one of the main teaching strategies in medical education. Therefore, educational experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic will improve our understanding of online learning and will help to develop blended medical school curricula in the future. For this reason, we aimed to determine students' overall satisfaction with their online learning experience and to define the main factors affecting students' satisfaction with their online learning program at Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted to determine medical students' overall satisfaction with online learning methods and to identify factors associated with positive and negative satisfaction levels. A questionnaire, consisting of 24 questions to collect demographic characteristics, factors associated with online education experience and overall satisfaction levels was developed and distributed to 1600 medical students. Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with positive and negative satisfaction levels. RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that being familiar with online teaching techniques (ß = 0.19, 95% CI [0.07, 0.30], faculty members' higher online teaching skill levels (ß = 0.42, 95% CI [0.32, 0.51], interactive online teaching approaches (ß = 0.54, 95% CI [0.41, 0.67], having a personal workspace (ß = 0.43, 95% CI [0.19, 0.67], and a self-reported longer attention span (ß = 0.75, 95% CI [0.57, 0.92] were associated with higher overall satisfaction with online learning. The occurrence of technical problems (ß = -0.19, 95% CI [-0.26, -0.12] was associated with lower overall satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Higher online teaching skills of faculty members, use of interactive approaches, students' familiarity with online teaching techniques, provision of a personal workspace, and self-reported longer attention spans positively contributed to higher levels of student satisfaction with online learning. Considering the increasing significance of online educational methods, our study identified key components that affect students' level of satisfaction. This information might contribute to the development of online educational programs in the future.

Profile and Motivations of Registered Whole-Body Donors in Turkey: Istanbul University Experience.

Little is known regarding the profiles of whole body donors in Muslim majority countries where donation is scarce. Therefore, this study aims to profile registered donors in Turkey by means of a survey. The explored data could be used to improve ongoing campaign efforts and ethical practices such as commemoration services. Registered donors of the donation programs at the two faculties of medicine of Istanbul University were compared with the national population and a cluster analysis was performed to reveal any concealed sub-groups. Data from 188 respondents were analyzed. The majority of registered donors were married (42%), male (65.4%), aged over 50 years (76%), held a tertiary education degree (49.7%), and were irreligious (58.5%). Cluster analysis revealed two groups with significantly different educational levels, marital statuses, and religious choices. Regarding whether their bodies could be used for education or research, the majority (64.5%) of the respondents left the decision to the anatomy department. Similarly, 73.8% approved indefinite use of their organs, body parts and/or skeletons. The respondents were also willing to share their medical history (94.2%) and personal information (81.6%) if needed. Motivational themes for body donation including usefulness, impermanence, religion, awareness, and kinship were devised after a thematic analysis. Among the respondents, 56.5% were registered organ donors and 63.3% were frequent blood donors. The results of this study provide data that may help revising informed consent forms, developing and implementing thanksgiving ceremonies, and selecting additional targets for supporting body donation campaign activities such as organ and blood donation units.

Topographic description of an alternative insertion technique for percutaneous approach of cricopharyngeus muscle electromyography: a cadaveric and clinical study.

BACKGROUND: Cricopharyngeus is the only muscle for which electromyography is used in the differential diagnosis of swallowing disorders. Because of some practical difficulties, electrophysiologic tests for this muscle are not performed routinely. Thus we aimed to describe an alternative topographic way to reach the muscle easily. METHODS: On 10 cadavers, a spinal needle (20 G) and on 37 patients a concentric needle electrode (26 G) were used. The needle was inserted percutaneous at the level of the superior border of the cricoid cartilage, anterior to the anterior border of the sternocleidomastoid muscle at 60 degrees angle to the frontal plane in the posteromedial direction. RESULTS: We reached the muscle in all cadavers. In all of the patients, the needle entered the muscle on the first attempt; that was confirmed by electromyographic responses. CONCLUSION: Our results show that this method can be useful for the practical application of cricopharyngeus muscle electromyography.