Virtual Pathology Elective, Real Education: The PathElective.com Experience as a Model for Novel Pathology Pedagogy and a Primer for Curricular Evolution

Abstract

Context: PathElective.com was created in response to the pandemic's restrictions on interactions with trainees, and since has been incorporated into many training programs worldwide, serving as a unique means of delivering high-quality pathology and laboratory medical education at multiple levels of training.

Objective: To analyze student usage, performance, and satisfaction to provide insight into the effectiveness of virtual education to guide curricular evolution.

Design: Squarespace (Squarespace, Inc) was used for website development and to collect website analytics. Students were assessed before and after course participation using a dual-form crossover quiz design. Quiz data were anonymous and analyzed with a paired t test to account for varying student backgrounds. A novel analysis was performed aimed at examining the attrition rate of students across multiple modules.

Results: During the study period (May 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021), PathElective.com received 577 483 page views, 126 180 visits, 59 928 unique visitors, and 10 278 registered users who earned 15 305 certificates. A total of 7338 premodule and postmodule quiz pairs were analyzed. The overall average increase in score was 13.83% (P = .02). All but 5 of the 56 courses experienced a statistically significant increase in score. All courses received median scores of Very Satisfied/Satisfied in all 6 assessment domains. Aggregate attrition data revealed a unique, negative polynomial relationship (R2 = 0.656).

Conclusions: PathElective.com is a free, effective means of enhancing anatomic/clinical pathology training in medical education. These analyses offer a unique perspective on the online user experience and could guide the development of future online medical education resources.