Resident, Fellow, and Attending Perception of E-Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Implications on Future Orthopaedic Education

Introduction: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate resident, fellow, and attending perspectives on the use of e-learning as part of orthopaedic surgery education. Methods: A survey was created evaluating (1) overall attitudes toward e-learning, (2) multi-institutional e-learning/e-conferences, (3) national/regional e-conferences, and (4) future directions with e-learning. The survey was distributed to all the orthopaedic surgery residency program directors in the United States, and they were asked to circulate the survey to their program's faculty and trainees. Results: A total of 268 responses were collected, including 100 attendings and 168 trainees. Overall satisfaction with e-learning compared with in-person learning was higher among trainees than attending faculty, with 51.4% of trainees favoring e-learning, as opposed to 32.2% of attendings (P= 0.006). Both groups felt they were more likely to pay attention with in-person learning (P= 0.89). During the COVID-19 pandemic, 85.7% of residents have used e-learning platforms to join a conference in their specialty of interest while off-service. Most attendings and trainees felt e-learning should play a supplemental role in standard residency/fellowship education, with a low number of respondents feeling that it should not be used (86.6% versus 84%, and 2.1% versus 0.6%, respectively,P= 0.28). Conclusion: E-learning has been an important modality to continue academic pursuits during the disruption in usual education and training schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most trainees and attendings surveyed felt that e-learning should play a supplementary role in resident and fellow education moving forward. Although e-learning does provide an opportunity to hold multi-institutional conferences and makes participation in meetings logistically easier, it cannot fully replicate the dynamic interactions and benefits of in-person learning.