Strategies adopted by undergraduate teaching assistants in physiology and biophysics education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected almost all aspects of our lives, including the education sector and the way of teaching and learning. In March 2020, health authorities in Brazil imposed social isolation and the interruption of on-site activities in schools and universities. In this context, the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), one of the largest universities in Brazil and Latin America, developed an emergency remote learning (ERL) plan that allowed the return of classes in an online format and supported students to obtain access to equipment and internet network. Within this new perspective, the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) program of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics (DFIB) explored strategies to minimize the impact of the absence of face-to-face classes. Using different available tools in online platforms and social media such as Microsoft Teams, YouTube animated video classes, and Instagram, the UTA program assisted >500 undergraduate students and strongly supported professors during ERL. In just over a year, our video classes on YouTube Channel reached ∼40,000 views. Most of the students reported that their questions were fully and quickly solved by the UTA program. Collectively, our results indicate that the strategies implemented by the UTA program helped the undergraduate students and professors to adapt to a remote learning format.

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact not only on public health but also on the economy and education system in many countries around the world (1–4). In March 2020 the pandemic caused Brazil, an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America, to have thousands of people dying every day (2). To date, more than 21 million cases have been confirmed, with more than 600,000 deaths in Brazil caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV 2) (5).

To slow down the transmission of the novel coronavirus, health authorities imposed social isolation. Brazilian public universities were temporarily closed and had to rapidly adjust the whole education system to remote (online) activities (6). In fact, the adaptation to this new scenario was widespread. Educators from different institutions created methods and strategies to support online teaching (7–9). Recently, Vollbrecht and colleagues (10) reported their experience in offering a preclinical Nervous System course to students at the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, as well as providing practical tips for transition from an in-person course to remote learning, such as a virtual office with available instructors to assist students and their questions, enhanced faculty-to-student ratio, and flexibility for students to complete coursework with asynchronous events and nonmandatory synchronous events.

The Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) is located in the Minas Gerais state (southeast region) and is one of the largest universities in Brazil. The Department of Physiology and Biophysics (DFIB) is one of the 10 departments of the Institute of Biological Sciences (ICB) at the UFMG. Quantitatively, DFIB has assisted an average of 1,650 students every semester since 2017, who are distributed among 14 biological and health sciences undergraduate courses, such as Biomedicine, Biological Sciences, Physical Education, Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nutrition, Dentistry, Psychology, Radiology, and Occupational Therapy. Since its foundation in 1971, the DFIB at the UFMG has had an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) program composed of selected undergraduate students. One of the purposes of the UTA is to promote peer learning between trainers and students, which depends on regular encounters and mutual communication. Peer education or peer learning has existed for centuries (11). Particularly in universities, it has been used to support students and foster their success (12, 13).

As soon as the face-to-face classes were suspended at UFMG (14), professors and staff from the university worked on several approaches to overcome the shutdown of in-person classes while maintaining the quality of learning. After this effort, the implementation of the outlined plan of emergency remote learning (ERL) began in August 2020 (15). The ERL consisted of the replacement of curricular, practical, or theoretical-practical face-to-face classes, on an exceptional basis, with remote academic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as classrooms with pedagogical mediation based on digital technologies of information and communication, enabling the interaction between student and professor (15). The lack of perspective for the end of the pandemic and the absence of a period to return to face-to-face activities served as the basis for the implementation and structuring of ERL for the UFMG community, including undergraduate and graduate programs. At the UFMG, ERL consisted of synchronous and asynchronous activities. Synchronous events are usually performed with the Microsoft Teams platform, and the asynchronous activities are available on different platforms, such as YouTube videos, online essays, and quizzes via Microsoft Teams and Moodle web platform (15). Although ERL allowed the development of curricular academic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of face-to-face interaction between students and professors could limit learning satisfaction (16, 17). The UTA program directly interacts with ERL as one strategy to overcome this limitation, providing online teaching tools to facilitate student learning and synchronous sessions to meet the students and help to answer their questions or address misconceptions.

Therefore, the purpose of the present article is to share our experience with the activities developed by the UTA program during the ERL and their beneficial impacts in supporting professors and undergraduate students. We took advantage of different tools to assist the students online and also to create interactive and animated video classes to disseminate via social media. As the whole experience was new, we asked whether the virtual environment would impact the engagement of students in the peer learning offered by the UTA program in biophysics and physiology at UFMG.

METHODS

Teaching-Learning Tools, Peer Learning Strategies, and Workflow

The UTA program is composed of 11 undergraduate students who undergo a two-step selection process, a written physiology and biophysics exam, and an interview. The UTA team is supervised by tutors, who are professors from the DFIB. Before the pandemic, the UTA program was based on “in-locus” activities coordinated and supervised by professors, i.e., the UTA team assisted the undergraduate students in the practical classes of physiology and biophysics courses and assigned meetings with students (at the DFIB) to discuss questions or unclear concepts related to these subjects. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UTA program was restructured to the online format, as part of the ERL. The workload became flexible, without the requirement of 12 contractual hours per week, but weekly goals were encouraged. A social network WhatsApp group was created to improve UTA members’ and professors’ communication, response time, and efficiency by integrating real-time messaging and discussions. Moreover, the UTA program has used several approaches and online tools to 1) create a channel to assist the students remotely (online) via Microsoft Teams, from where the UTA team took students’ requests; 2) produce many tutorials for preparation of video classes with different free tools, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, OBS Studio, Record Tools of Windows 10, and Windows Photos (previously known as Movie Maker); 3) create interactive and animated video classes; 4) create a Physiology and Biophysics YouTube channel; 5) disseminate and communicate science via social media; and 6) adapt teaching material for physiology and biophysics for remote learning (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.

Workflow of the Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) dynamics during emergency remote learning (ERL): workflow of online teaching and assistance (A), tutorial for video classes (B), production of animated and interactive video classes (C), and dissemination and communication of physiology and biophysics via social media (D).

Online assistance.

To assist undergraduate students online, UTA scheduled synchronous meetings with each student or a group of them to discuss questions related to the Physiology and Biophysics topics via Microsoft Teams (Fig. 1). To schedule a meeting, undergraduate students filled out an online form with the question(s), chosen date and time, and personal information, such as name, e-mail, and course. Next, one of the UTAs was selected to be responsible for the student’s request based on the scheduled time. The total number of requests fulfilled was recorded and compared to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic. The first contact was via e-mail to provide asynchronous material about the subject (or topic to be discussed) and to prepare the student for the synchronous online meeting. According to the ERL institutional guidelines, asynchronous activities should be prioritized to avoid the “Zoom fatigue” phenomenon, since students already participated in synchronous online activities during classes (15).

Development of tutorials for video class production.

As one of the first strategies, the UTA team developed a tutorial about the production of video classes with several free tools available online to support the demand for online classes required by professors during the ERL (Fig. 1). This tutorial consisted of strategies to create, edit, and record video classes in a clear, simple, and uniform language to professors with no, limited, or large experience in video editing. The tutorial was available before the beginning of ERL and supported many professors in improving their skills for remote/online teaching.

Creation of animated and interactive video classes.

To create animated and interactive video classes, the UTA team selected topics initially that students had more questions about, based on the experience of previous years. Subsequently, the creation of video classes became systematic, designed to cover most subjects of the discipline. The video script for each topic was written by UTAs and reviewed by at least two professors of the DFIB, experts on each topic (Fig. 1). After approval, UTAs recorded the animated video classes, often using Creative Commons, Servier Medical Art, and PowerPoint tools to produce the animation figures to make an interactive video. Next, the video contents were revised and then uploaded on the YouTube channel for sharing with students and the community. More than 50 videos, averaging 15–20 min, were produced during the ERL (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAY7WARNwYxQBrYjNq-uAZw/videos). Practical classes were also recorded and shared with the students to discuss during synchronous classes.

Scientific dissemination.

The COVID-19 pandemic raised the discussion about several aspects related to science worldwide, such as different platforms of vaccine development, good hygiene and health care practices to avoid virus transmission, and social isolation. Although the spread of fake news related to the pandemic was common, it proved the relevance of social media for scientific dissemination. In this context, the UTA team has edited and posted material and videos about several topics in the social media of the UTA program, such as Instagram and YouTube, to disseminate basic concepts and aspects related to physiology and biophysics (Fig. 1). Short videos on the Instagram of DFIB (@fisiologiabiofisicaufmg) have engaged students and the community to know more about each topic and stimulate them to watch the full videos on YouTube platform.

Measures and Data Analysis

To assess the quality of the UTA program, as well as the points that needed to be improved, assisted students were invited to reply on an online feedback form at the end of each semester. Based on these results, a descriptive statistic was used to analyze the efficiency of the UTA program in supporting students and professors during remote learning. The feedback form assessed the level of satisfaction with the services provided via the Microsoft Teams platform and e-mail, how promptly the undergraduate students’ concerns were answered, and whether their doubts were completely resolved. In addition, whether the available videos and YouTube channel supported them in the learning of physiology and biophysics was evaluated. Finally, their opinion was asked about the next step of the hybrid learning model for the UTA program.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Improvements afforded by online learning, such as flexible time and reduced need for commuting to the university, have been documented both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (18). The wide spread and growth of online learning platforms was a successful strategy used by several educational institutions around the world, such as Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, and many others (19–21). The number of free online courses available from these top-ranked universities has been growing considerably. Even with a range of benefits that can facilitate access and communication, many challenges were faced during ERL. In Brazil, as well as in other developing countries, many students did not have access to computers/tablets and/or internet connection, which compromised a consistent remote learning process (22–24). A reserved/private place for online/remote learning, as well as adequate home infrastructure for families that have more than one student at home, were reported as additional challenges (22–24). These aspects are particularly important at the UFMG, which is a very large community, ranked among the largest universities in Brazil. Moreover, the internet network can easily be a source of distraction, requiring responsibility, commitment, and discipline to assist learning. To overcome part of these challenges, the UFMG has provided computers, financial support to hire internet connection plans for economically disadvantaged undergraduate students, and appropriate academic material to all UFMG students, such as an e-books library (25).

Undergraduate Teaching Assistance Statistics before and after ERL

The UTA program covered >500 undergraduate students during the 50 wk of the ERL period (Fig. 2). Figure 2 shows the number of online support requests by undergraduate students before and during the pandemic, which were all fulfilled. These data are expressed as total requests as well as the ratio between the number of support requests and the number of students enrolled in physiology and biophysics courses offered by the DFIB. The average number of requests fulfilled during ERL was 175 per semester, and 2020/2 registered the highest number of requests fulfilled (207) (Fig. 2).

Figure 2.

Number of online requests fulfilled. A: total number of online requests fulfilled during emergency remote learning (ERL) (cumulative data from 2020/1, 2020/2, and 2021/1). B: number of online requests fulfilled (bars, left y-axis) and the ratio between the number of requests fulfilled and the total number of students enrolled in physiology and biophysics (line, right y-axis). Both data sets regard the periods during in-person classes (2019/1 and 2019/2) and ERL (2020/1, 2020/2, and 2021/1/).

Before the pandemic (2019/1 and 2019/2), the support requests and the ratio of requests for teaching support in UTA program were lower than the values observed during the pandemic (Fig. 2). Whereas 3.4% and 7% of students enrolled in the disciplines of physiology and biophysics requested UTA support in 2019/1 and 2019/2, respectively, the percentage of requests increased during the pandemic with the implementation of the ERL, reaching >11% after 2020/2. Although we observed a slight reduction in the number of requests in 2021/1 compared with 2020/2, the ratio of requests to the number of students enrolled in physiology and biophysics courses was similar in these periods (11.9% and 11.5%, respectively). The fewer requests for online UTA assistance (144) and the reduced ratio (8.5%) in 2020/1 are probably because the implementation of the ERL system occurred after the beginning of the 2020/1 semester. Thus, the classes started before the pandemic in a face-to-face model, in which the close contact with the professor in room classes facilitated direct discussion between student and professor, possibly reducing the UTA online requests. In addition, the higher online teaching requests fulfilled after 2020/1 may be a result of positive dissemination of UTA program and online material (video classes, YouTube channel, and posts on social media).

The increase in the number of requests for UTA support strongly suggests that the program had an important role in ERL. Although the online assistance might have facilitated the students’ access to the program, instead of in-person assistance, we believe that the difficulties imposed by the online classes, such as isolation and need for discussion, as well as the improvement and dissemination of UTA program also contributed to this enhancement.

Analysis of Online Assistance Request by Undergraduate Course and Comparison between Biophysics and Physiology Demands during ERL

To assess the demand by each undergraduate course, we analyzed the requests of the 14 courses of undergraduate students enrolled in physiology and biophysics. Higher demand for UTA support was observed for Pharmacy (145), followed by Medicine (75), Nursing (66), and Biological Sciences (56). The other courses (Biomedicine, Physical Education, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Psychology, Speech Therapy, and Radiology) presented lower demand and comprised the sum of total number of online teaching requests (Fig. 3). We have two hypotheses that may help to explain the impact on the different demands among the undergraduate courses: 1) Although the UTA program had an online advertisement, there was heterogeneous disclosure given by the DFIB’s professors about the UTA program and 2) the physiology and biophysics hourly load of each undergraduate course, which directly influences the in-depth level of the discussion about each topic. These factors likely impacted the demand per course. However, further data collection and analysis are needed to establish a direct cause for why students from a particular course request more or less support from the UTA program.

Figure 3.

Number of online teaching requests by undergraduate course and comparison between biophysics and physiology demands during emergency remote learning (ERL). A: number of online teaching requests in each course per semester and the ratio of students requesting assistance to total number of students enrolled in physiology and biophysics subjects in each course (“others” refers to the total number of online teaching requests from Biomedicine, Physical Education, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Psychology, Speech Therapy, and Radiology courses). B: number of requests fulfilled related to physiology and biophysics subjects per semester (bars, left y-axis) and the ratio of requests fulfilled to the total number of students enrolled in physiology and/or biophysics subjects (points, right y-axis).

For all ERL semesters, the number of questions related to biophysics was higher compared with topics of physiology (Fig. 3). We observed that most undergraduate students have issues in topics related to mathematics (data not shown) and, consequently, presented difficult-to-answer questions involving calculations, which may justify a greater number of requests in biophysics. More specifically, most questions were related to calculations in buffer solutions, pH, pKa, osmolarity, tonicity, and membrane potential. In physiology, most questions were related to neurophysiology, renal physiology, and cardiovascular topics.

As mentioned above, animated and interactive video classes about topics related to biophysics and physiology were produced to support professors and students during ERL. More than 50 videos were produced and posted on the YouTube channel, as follows: 11 for general biophysics, 5 for membrane biophysics, 8 for neurophysiology, 7 for respiratory physiology, 4 for endocrine and reproductive physiology, 10 for renal physiology, 3 for physiology of the gastrointestinal tract, and 5 for cardiovascular physiology. In general, videos were at least 5 min and a maximum duration of 20 min to cover the learning objectives for each topic. The total number of views on our YouTube channel was >39,000 in just over a year (July 2020–September 2021), briefly, 10,124 views in 2020/1, 11,775 views in 2020/2, and 15,996 views in 2021/1 (Fig. 4). Collectively, these data indicate that the animated and interactive video classes produced by the UTA program were a valuable and useful tool to support students and disseminate topics in biophysics and physiology to the university community as well as society.

Figure 4.

Number of views on YouTube channel over emergency remote learning (ERL) time. The dashed lines indicate the transition of semesters: 2020/1 (started on August 3rd and ended on November 7th), 2020/2 (started on November 30th and ended on March 31st), and 2021/1 (started on May 17th and ended on September 13th). All data were collected on the YouTube platform on September 11th, 2021.

It should be highlighted that video content was recorded in the Portuguese language, considering that the primary purpose was to assist Brazilian undergraduate students. However, it is completely possible to assume that a higher number of views would be reached if it were recorded in the English language (part of our future plans), which would improve the spreading of the knowledge about physiology and biophysics topics worldwide.

To get feedback on the UTA program, assisted students were invited to share their thoughts in a survey at the end of each semester before and during ERL (Table 1). Although only ∼16% and 20% of the students who requested UTA support responded to the form before and during ERL, respectively, the feedback of the majority was considered encouraging during ERL. For example, 92% of the students reported that their requests were answered quickly during ERL compared with 86% before ERL, and ∼8% reported late assistance during ERL compared with 14% before ERL. Furthermore, 91% of students reported that their questions were fully solved during ERL compared with 71% before ERL, and 8% and 1% reported partially or unsolved questions, respectively, during ERL compared with 25% and 4%, respectively, before ERL. In the same way during ERL, 87% and 93% of the students reported UTA support, via Microsoft Teams and e-mail, respectively, as good or excellent, and ∼82% considered YouTube video classes relevant to the understanding of each topic. Although the survey response rate is low, our data demonstrated the relevance of the UTA program, especially during the pandemic.

Table 1.

Feedback about the UTA program before and during ERL and comparison of UTA online program with face-to-face support

Before ERL
Student waiting time to be assisted by UTA program	Quickly		Late
	85.7%%		14.3%
Level of satisfaction about UTA support	Question fully solved	Question partially solved	Question not solved
	71.4%	25%	3.6%
During ERL
Student waiting time to be assisted by UTA program	Quickly		Late
	92%		8%
Level of satisfaction about UTA support	Question fully solved	Question partially solved	Question not solved
	91%	8%	1%
Level of satisfaction about UTA support via Microsoft Teams	Excellent	Good	Regular	NTD
	69%	18%	3%	10%
Level of satisfaction about UTA support via e-mail	Excellent	Good	Regular	Insufficient or NTD
	76%	17%	4%	3%
Relevance of YouTube video classes	Relevant	Indifferent	NTD
	82%	5%	13%
Comparison of UTA online program with face-to-face support
Compared to face-to-face, online UTA program was:	Facilitated	Indifferent	Harmed	NTD
	27%	11%	15%	47%
Back to in-person classes, UTA program should be:	Fully online	Fully in-person	Hybrid	NTD
	18%	18%	58%	6%

ERL, emergency remote learning; NTD, nothing to declare; UTA, Undergraduate Teaching Assistant.

Interestingly, only 27% reported that the online UTA program was better compared with the face-to-face UTA program. It is important to keep in mind, however, that most of these students did not have a face-to-face UTA experience, considering that the Physiology and Biophysics courses are offered in the first or second semester (beginning) of the undergraduate courses and most of the students were enrolled in the university just before or during the COVID-19 pandemic isolation period. This fact is corroborated by the 47% of the students who could not answer this question. Importantly, 58% of the students reported that a hybrid format of the UTA support should be considered for the semester when regular face-to-face classes are expected to return. Thus, even with the positive features of online UTA activities that helped students to overcome their difficulties, face-to-face UTA support learning is still requested by students.

Conclusions and Perspectives

The UTA program was restructured to an online format surprisingly rapidly, considering all the difficulty given the emergency situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the approaches of some of the well-known universities, the UTA team produced interactive and animated video classes, dynamic posts for social media, quizzes, group discussion, and online assistance to support and engage undergraduate students during the ERL. The UTA team was created at Microsoft Teams to meet the students online and help to answer their questions and to address any misconceptions. The YouTube channel served as additional support for the UTA explanations and also for the professors during synchronous and asynchronous classes.

The UTA program had a crucial role to support the professors of DFIB and a huge number of undergraduate students. DFIB has ∼15,000 students served in different undergraduate courses in the last 5 yr. In 2020/2 and 2021/1 >10% of the students enrolled in the courses of Physiology and Biophysics asked for UTA support, which represents >350 assisted students per year. Over 39,000 views on the YouTube channel was achieved in just over a year, which clearly shows the relevance of these videos to students and society.

Considering the advance in vaccination for COVID-19 and the public health authorities’ guidelines, both at the city and state levels, the UFMG has announced a plan to migrate back to in person, including face-to-face classes. Given the experience acquired during remote activities, the UTA program is now planning to keep a hybrid system, emphasizing and improving the positive aspects of the online system, i.e., keeping online assistance and production of interactive video classes even after the return to face-to-face classes. Significant challenges in the UTA program remain to achieve a greater number of students who are properly assisted and to improve the quality of the materials for distance learning of physiology and biophysics to support a hybrid model. Beyond the UTA program, we intend to create free online courses based on new interactive and dynamic video classes and quizzes, as well as podcasts about physiology and biophysics topics to engage students, the UFMG community, and society.

GRANTS

We acknowledge Pró-Reitoria de Graduação da UFMG (Prograd/UFMG) for providing financial/scholarship support. P.P.G.G. is supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq 401390/2020-9; 442731/2020-5) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG-APQ-00826-21). G.S.F.S. is supported by CNPq (311516/2020-3) and FAPEMIG (APQ-00779-21).

DISCLOSURES

No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

P.B.-S., G.S.F.S., and P.P.G.G. conceived and designed research; D.S.G.-M., M.P.R., A.S.-S., E.L.A., V.S.O., P.E.P.C., I.J.S.B., G.T.C.V., R.S.V., and F.A.C.C. performed experiments; D.S.G.-M., M.P.R., A.S.-S. P.B.-S., G.S.F.S., and P.P.G.G. analyzed data; D.S.G.-M., M.P.R., P.B.-S., G.S.F.S., and P.P.G.G. interpreted results of experiments; D.S.G.-M., M.P.R., A.S.-S., E.L.A., V.S.O., P.E.P.C., I.J.S.B., G.T.C.V., R.S.V., and F.A.C.C. prepared figures; D.S.G.-M., M.P.R., G.S.F.S., and P.P.G.G. drafted manuscript; G.S.P., P.B.-S., G.S.F.S., and P.P.G.G. edited and revised manuscript; D.S.G.-M., M.P.R., A.S.-S., E.L.A., V.S.O., P.E.P.C., I.J.S.B., G.T.C.V., R.S.V., F.A.C.C., G.S.P., P.B.-S., G.S.F.S., and P.P.G.G. approved final version of manuscript.