Live in Front of Students Teaching Sessions (LISTS): a Novel Learning Experience from Jordan During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered innovative approaches in medical education. Modifications are needed to overcome the drawbacks of pure online teaching. Our study aimed at testing a hybrid method of live online practical anatomy sessions in which an element of face-to-face teacher-student interaction is maintained. Methods We performed an experiment with a one-group design in which medical and medical laboratory sciences students were taught different practical anatomy topics using either purely online or live in front of students teaching sessions (LISTS). Students’ performance and perceptions were quantitatively assessed. Results For 108 medical laboratory sciences students, the mean quiz scores were significantly higher for the topics taught by the LISTS approach ( p = 0.025). For two groups of 13 and 17 medical students, the performance in exams was significantly higher for the topics taught using the LISTS method ( p = 0.000 and 0.011, respectively) with large effect sizes. Students’ perceptions of preference, enjoyment, and satisfaction were all in favor of LISTS. Conclusions Our results confirmed that keeping at least a minimum of interaction between the teacher and students can have a significant improvement in the performance and engagement in practical anatomy sessions for health professionals. The results indicate that the extra effort of LISTS was worth it.