key: cord-0742690-4mkefkau authors: Zuo, Leila; Miller Juvé, Amy title: Transitioning to a new era: Future directions for staff development during COVID‐19 date: 2020-10-27 journal: Med Educ DOI: 10.1111/medu.14387 sha: 09102bcd089608496eed8531be4f87bf30719c9d doc_id: 742690 cord_uid: 4mkefkau The COVID‐19 pandemic created an urgent need for staff development. However, COVID‐19 has created many challenges, including the inability to meet in‐person, travel restrictions to conferences, overwhelming clinical demands on already overextended faculty members and the increased need to focus on personal health and safety. Although current challenges were immediately met with solutions borne out of an emergency, questions remain on how to identify and sustain best practices and further evolve staff development beyond the immediate crisis. Reviewing the Medical Adaptations series revealed several lessons. Several authors used cognitive apprenticeship to provide scaffolding upon which learners can build skills, knowledge and attitudes. Additionally, moderators were recommended during live educational sessions in order to manage the chat box and engage the audience. Comprehensive IT support was key. A post‐session debrief helped deepen understanding and provided a space for peer support and community building. Building a repository for educational materials was recommended. Although we made significant gains in the ability to offer staff development, we must consider potential and unintended consequences and explore how we can use transformative learning theory to capitalize on what we have gained. Utilizing technology can potentially increase access to online learning; however, when not implemented carefully, it can magnify inequities. While providing IT support can serve to mitigate some inequities borne by socioeconomic and generational differences, additional strategies should be implemented to account for English as a second‐language learners; those with disabilities who do not have access to adaptive technology; and other marginalized groups who may already feel vulnerable to presenting arguments in oppositions of authority or the majority. Crafting online education experiences to allow for small group, peer‐to‐peer and social interactions is vital to continued professional and identity development. Now that the urgency has lessened, taking time to ensure what is being offered follows best practices in developing and disseminating quality online education is paramount for broad acceptance. Medical Adaptations series revealed several lessons. Several authors used cognitive apprenticeship to provide scaffolding upon which learners can build skills, knowledge and attitudes. Additionally, moderators were recommended during live educational sessions in order to manage the chat box and engage the audience. Comprehensive IT support was key. A post-session debrief helped deepen understanding and provided a space for peer support and community building. Building a repository for educational materials was recommended. Although we made significant gains in the ability to offer staff development, we must consider potential and unintended consequences and explore how we can use transformative learning theory to capitalize on what we have gained. Utilizing technology can potentially increase access to online learning; however, when not implemented carefully, it can magnify inequities. While providing IT support can serve to mitigate some inequities borne by socioeconomic and generational differences, additional strategies should be implemented to account for English as a second-language learners; those with disabilities who do not have access to adaptive technology; and other marginalized groups who may already feel vulnerable to presenting arguments in oppositions of authority or the majority. Crafting online education experiences to allow for small group, peer-to-peer and social interactions is vital to continued professional and identity development. Now that the urgency has lessened, taking time to ensure what is being offered follows best practices in developing and disseminating quality online education is paramount for broad acceptance. Although current challenges were immediately met with solutions borne out of an emergency, questions remain on how to identify and sustain best practices and further evolve staff development beyond the immediate crisis. This paper will first discuss lessons learned from the Medical Adaptations series, 2 using the conceptual framework of solution-ism, the idea that technological solutions can be adopted to solve problems without fully comprehending the complexity of the issue, 3 to guide the discussion. Then, we will attempt to address recommendations for moving forward. Within these key themes, there were several shared techniques. Two papers 4,5 on faculty development programmes employed elements of cognitive apprenticeship. 6 The main tenet of which is to provide scaffolding or structural support upon which learners can build skills, knowledge and attitudes. Prior to a workshop or conference, pre-session technical training was provided to familiarise staff with the web platform so they could capitalise on the workshop or conference session. 4, 5, 7 Methods of education included instructional videos as well as online information technology (IT) clinics. During the live educational session, moderators were recommended 4,8 to manage the chat box as well as engage the audience. Breaking out into small group sessions facilitated active learning and discussion during the deployment of activities. 5 Offering several varied hands-on activities with constructive feedback engaged faculty member in active learning. 5 Comprehensive IT support was key for several authors. 4 The pandemic necessitated an urgent shift in the way we offer staff development. Innovative approaches to medical staff development emerged as a means to continue to provide educational offerings to our learners, provide just-in-time training for clinical work and offer a means to participate in career development. Key to these innovations, technology afforded us the opportunity to offer emergency online education 10 in which we quickly pivoted our in-person offerings to online. These adaptations allowed participation in low-cost or no-cost professional development opportunities, ability to offer otherwise forgone education to our learners and the ability to connect more easily with national and international colleagues. Although we made significant gains in the ability to offer staff development, we must consider potential and unintended consequences and explore how we can use transformative learning theory to capitalise on what we have gained. Potential unintended consequence of offering emergency online education versus providing thoughtfully developed, high-quality online education includes utilising strategies that dissuade long-term uptake and participation, exacerbating inequalities and losing a sense of community. Online education has been studied for decades and does not simply mimic in-person teaching, in a virtual environment. Yet due to necessity, at the height of the pandemic, in-person content was simply moved online, mostly utilising web-based meeting products like Zoom (Zoom Video Communications Inc) for delivery. High-quality online education utilises a variety of platforms and technologies to engage learners synchronously and asynchronously in fostering critical thinking, encouraging thoughtful analysis of information, promoting self-reflection and providing a platform for learners to intentionally acquire relevant skills and knowledge. 11 The Adaptations articles articulate the use of technology to support best practices for online learning such as a moderated group chat, small group learning in a digital space and a repository of educational content that can be accessed asynchronously. Crafting online education experiences to allow for small group, peerto-peer and social interactions is vital to continued professional and identity development. Although emergency online education was an acceptable shortterm solution, transformative learning theory 12 can offer a grounding framework which we can use to ensure innovative approaches to staff development persist beyond the pandemic. Transformative learning theory utilises a disorienting event to challenge current thinking. It posits that learners evaluate new ideas and skills (ie learning utilising technology) against previously held understandings (ie in-person education is superior to online). Learners shift their worldview utilising critical reflection as opposed to simply acquiring new information. They no longer accept previous understandings wholly in order to make room for new insights or ways of doing things. We have new tools and processes to develop staff in ways we did not conceive possible or acceptable pre-COVID. Although the pandemic wages on, and it is unclear when we will be able to safely meet in person again, we must take this opportunity to capitalise on the ground gained with the current acceptance of using technology to deliver online staff development. In order to do so, it is imperative that we provide staff with the highest quality offerings. Now that the urgency has lessened, taking time to ensure what is being offered follows best practices in developing and disseminating quality online education is paramount for broad acceptance. Leila Zuo and Amy Miller Juve-substantial contribution to the conception and design of the work, drafting, and revising it critically. Gave final approval for submitted paper. 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