[Digital teaching in pathology: experiences from Mainz]

Abstract

Background: Due to the corona pandemic, digital teaching has become especially important in education and has led to a restructuring of teaching, not only in the subject of surgical pathology.

Objectives: In this article, different forms of e‑learning are presented and illustrated using the example of teaching surgical pathology and neuropathology at the University Medical Center Mainz.

Results: Before the onset of the corona pandemic in spring 2020, digitization had already assumed great importance for teaching in the technology- and method-oriented subject of surgical pathology. In particular, the possibility of virtual microscopy via scanned slides with a digital slide server has been used in many pathology institutes. Virtual microscopy often partially or completely replaced conventional microscopy of histologic slide collections. Complementary virtual learning offers are becoming more and more important. These include asynchronously provided lectures or macroscopy videos, video conferences, scripts and communication via learning platforms. In addition, electronic exams have become an indispensable part of teaching. Nevertheless, the corona pandemic revealed how important personal contact with students is to achieve optimal learning success; learning forms with a combination of face-to-face teaching and e‑learning in the sense of blended learning are of particular importance.

Conclusions: As part of blended learning, digital teaching is an ideal complement to face-to-face teaching and is changing teaching in the longer term, not only in the field of surgical pathology. Digital learning formats will remain in the future and will at least partially replace classroom formats such as lectures.

Keywords: Asynchronous; Blended learning; Histopathology; Slide server; Virtual.