Education during the COVID-19 Lockdown: Does the Pandemic Extend the Scope of Distance Learning?

Abstract

The reasons for and importance of readiness for distance learning in higher education are identified, especially regarding some aspects of teaching in higher medical education. The history of introduction of distance learning components in educational process at the I. Horbachevsky National Medical University in Ternopil (TNMU) is shown. Purpose of online cloud services that TNMU has been subscribed to as well as self-hosted by TNMU distance education tools are explained. The experience gained during the implementation of full-scale distance education at TNMU during the COVID-19 quarantine is presented. The analysis of students’ performance during the full distance educational period in comparison with a blended part of the Medical Informatics course are presented.