Medical education adaptation in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: We describe the circumstances and adaptations in the South Korean medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss areas in need of improvement in preparation of a worsening situation or for similar future public health crises. Methods: Literature reviews, focusing on research papers about medical educational changes in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic were performed. Selective data collected from a nationwide online survey by the Korean Association of Medical Colleges on the status of curricular changes in medical schools during the COVID-19 was presented. Results: All lectures have moved online, but clinical students continued their hospital placements during the pandemic, except for the first 3-5 weeks during the first surge in 2020. Initial technical naivety of the faculty and lack of technical resources were short-lived and the medical students settled well showing a much higher than expected student satisfaction level over online education. Practical skills sessions which benefit most from onsite hands-on experiences such as anatomy dissection, were delivered through a blended approach in some medical school. Student evaluation is the area of least change, mainly due to the students' lack of trust in online assessments. Conclusion: South Korea' underwent major changes in medical education brought upon COVID-19 and the readiness of the technology adoption has been much increased. Student evaluation is the area of least transformation. Adoption of a programmatic assessment system should be considered to enhance not only learning but also improve trust among stakeholders of medical schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Asia Pacific Scholar is the property of Centre for Medical Education (CenMed) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)