A hybridized framework for designing and evaluating e-learning students’ performance in medical education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the hurried adoption of e-learning with no proper need analysis to inform the design and subsequent evaluation of students’ performance in e-learning in medical education. Consequently, several studies evaluating performance in e-learning in medical education do so by conducting pre-test and post-test with no defined framework or model to guide the evaluation. This makes the findings from these studies subjective and biased since factors that possibly impact students’ performance were neither considered in the design of the course nor measured and reported in the evaluation studies. We, therefore, introduce an essential pedagogical e-learning concept by developing a framework to inform the design and evaluation of students’ performance in e-learning in medical education via the thoughtful fusion of the Task-Technology Fit Model and the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model. Our hybrid framework was piloted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa and findings emphasize the need for alignment between learning tasks, technology infrastructures, individual traits, and contextual limitations of students as key factors in determining how well students perform in the classroom and their clinical practices at work. This study advances the body of knowledge by providing a well-brainstormed and intricately designed framework to guide the design of courses and evaluation of student’s performance in an e-learning context in medical education.