Didactics and Academics
Keeping an up-to-date and continuous learning is fundamental for the Otolaryngology residency, and the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed alternative teaching methods to arise. For instance, all chilean first and second year Otolaryngology residents have mandatory unified core curriculum lessons twice a week between april and november, previously performed in-person by teachers from the Sociedad Chilena de Otorrinolaringología y Cirugía de Cabeza y Cuello. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak all the lectures and evaluations were changed to an online platform.
In the same way, our residency program introduced a dynamic academic schedule during the pandemia, hosted through a virtual platform:
1.- Seminars regarding a topic of interest for residents are held twice a week, hosted by an assigned attending. The attending previously chooses bibliography for the seminar, where the topic is addressed and discussed according to the literature’s clinical relevance and application.
2.- Every wednesday a Department meeting takes place, where a topic of interest is discussed and presented by a resident.
3.- The residents joined the “Collaborative Multi-Institutional Otolaryngology Residency Education Program”, aiming to attend four conferences per week7.
4.- One module from Otosource was designated for each resident per week. The theme was decided according to the residency year8.
5.- The learning progress is objectified through formative pop quizzes once every two weeks using the CANVAS platform. These quizzes evaluate subjects addressed the previous week.
Finally, residents were encouraged to complete all the ongoing research, and create new retrospective studies during their “Off period”.