Is there any sustained effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic? - A controlled trial comparing pre- and post-pandemic oral radiology courses

Purpose/objectives: Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, undergraduate education shifted towards online-only formats from April 2020 until July 2021. Previous research indicated a negative effect on students' competence development, and it remains unclear whether blended learning concepts could provide compensation. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare pre- to post-pandemic students' performance in standardized baseline (BL) and final exams (FE), as well as the associated knowledge gain (KG) in three consecutive undergraduate blended learning-based oral radiology courses (C1-3).Methods: Ninety-four students participated during two pre-pandemic semesters (October 17-July 18), and ninety-eight students during two post-pandemic semesters (October 21-July 22). Before the pandemic, conventional face-to-face lectures were combined with an oral radiology platform. Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, additional video-based e-learning modules were adopted from the pandemic online-only curriculum. In each semester, skills and KG were assessed by conducting standardized BL and FE. Students' performance in BL, FE, and the associated KG during pre-pandemic semesters was compared to post-pandemic semesters.Results: In post-pandemic courses, students showed significantly lower BL scores, whereas KG was significantly higher in post- compared to pre-pandemic semesters (27.42% vs. 10.64%, p < 0.001, respectively). FE scores in C1 significantly improved from pre- to post-pandemic semesters.Conclusions: Within the limitations of our study, the lower BL scores confirmed the negative effect of the pandemic on competence development. Blended learning concepts seem to compensate for this effect and enable students to return to pre-pandemic levels. Future studies are needed to assess the additional impact of video-based e-learning modules.