Quality Assurance of Online Surgical Learning Process: Development and Validation of Shalamar Online Learning Experience Measure (SOLEM)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained medical infrastructure, stagnated global economy and disrupted student life worldwide. The need for social distancing presented a unique challenge to surgical educators, and schools took the opportunity to become virtual, medical students learning surgical techniques in particular were required to take clinical instructions online. This also presented another challenge for the educator— quality assurance of the online learning process. In this study we have developed and validated an online learning instrument, namely Shalamar Online Learning Experience Measure (SOLEM), which would serve as a standard against which quality assurance of online learning programs, particularly of surgery, could be established and maintained.