When University of Kansas School of Medicine doctoral candidate Kafayat Yusuf’s baby caught a cold in the middle of the 2023 spring semester, she was worried she would have to miss a week’s worth of classes and labs. But because of virtual options made available to her at the School of Medicine, she didn’t miss a beat.

Higher education was thrown into a world of virtual learning overnight when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. But while on-campus activity at KU Medical Center largely resumed in 2022, some of the changes brought on by the pandemic, including more online class options and opportunities to practice telemedicine, aren’t going anywhere.  

“We called it a forced experiment,” said Giulia Bonaminio, Ph.D., senior associate dean of medical education for the School of Medicine. “We really were forced to try things we had been hesitant to do before, but we saw how much some of these practices benefit students, so we are keeping them.”  

For Yusuf, who works in research on colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease, the biggest benefit is that she can stay home when she needs to take care of her child, even though she prefers to go to class on campus, she said.

“I still get the same information as all of my classmates, instead of completely missing out,” Yusuf said.

Now the three schools at KU Medical Center — health professions, medicine and nursing — offer students, staff and faculty more flexibility when it comes to where they complete their work.

While the School of Medicine has recorded classes in podcast form since 2006, instructors began live streaming lectures with video during the pandemic, and they will continue to do so indefinitely. This not only helps students who can’t make it to campus for class, but also gives students more opportunities to tailor their courses to fit their learning style, Bonaminio said.

“Students don’t want to do everything one way — they want to have options,” Bonaminio said. “They like doing experiential and small group work in person, but for large group sessions, they want a choice of in-person or virtual so they can pick what is most efficient for them.”

Yusuf said she appreciates how virtual meetings open possibilities beyond just going to class — from virtual conferences to defending her dissertation in front a wider audience.

Professors are also finding it easier to bring experts from around the world to class because guest speakers can join virtually. Online classes allow faculty to teach at a distance when they need to, whether because they live far away or because they are active clinicians, said Jeff Radel, Ph.D., associate dean of academic and student affairs for the School of Health Professions.

“Our students get better training, because they can learn from someone with a particular area of expertise, even though that instructor might live in Nashville, or somewhere in South Carolina, or wherever it may be,” Radel said.

The School of Health Professions takes tools developed in the pandemic beyond the classroom to engage with more prospective students, as well as their families and even their teachers, because they can meet virtually.

“Recruiters can have a virtual session and include people who are hundreds of miles apart from one another in the same session,” Radel said.

In the School of Nursing, the simulation education program expanded significantly during the pandemic, though the plan to grow the program predates COVID-19. The simulation lab gives students hands-on clinical practice in a safe learning environment, said Kesa Herlihy, Ph.D., director of the simulation education program for the School of Nursing.

“It gives the students a chance to make a mistake in an environment where the outcome doesn’t matter as much,” Herlihy said. “What we care about during a simulation is the thought process that took the student there.”

The pandemic also made it easier for KU Medical Center’s three campuses to connect. Herlihy said it can be easy for faculty and staff who are outside Kansas City to feel left out of major decisions but connecting virtually allows for more inclusion across all campuses. Students also benefit from the ability to stream classes from other campuses, Bonaminio said.

“It puts everyone on the same playing field,” she said.

But hybrid work comes with its own drawbacks. Herlihy said she misses interacting with her coworkers in the office.

“A lot of people were very happy with the work at home option and have continued that, so there are not as many people around,” Herlihy said. “There used to be a big group of people who would eat together, and now there's maybe two or three people on campus per day. It’s just quieter.”

While virtual learning creates more flexibility for students, it is very important that they learn certain things in-person, especially when it comes to hands-on clinical training. Bonaminio said students prefer to have a virtual option for large group lectures, but they usually need to be on campus for small group sessions and working in the lab.

“For undergraduate nursing students, trying to teach them how to listen to heart and lung sounds at a distance doesn't work,” Herlihy said. “I can't teach you how to start an IV or Foley catheter into distance. But we can talk about who needs one and why, and how to know if it's getting infected.”

Whether online or in-person, students across KU Medical Center are now learning more about telehealth and caring for patients virtually than before the pandemic. In the School of Nursing, students were not required to complete any virtual clinical hours before the pandemic, but they now complete at least two virtual clinical days per semester, Herlihy said.

“We were already heading that way, but it’s ramped up a whole lot,” Radel said. “There are so many simple things to practice when you’re trying to treat someone without being in the same room.”

Outside of academics, KU Medical Center has seen more engagement with campus organizations because many club meetings permanently moved online, which allows inclusivity to thrive, said Ryan Gove, director of student life.

“We realized during the pandemic that the easiest way to eliminate half your audience is to say that an event is in this room at this specific time,” Gove said. “If I can be anywhere and tune in at a specific time, then, okay, I can add that to my schedule. I might be eating lunch or picking up my kid from daycare, but I’ll tune in.”

KU Medical Center’s Student Governing Council benefits from the hybrid option because students who live farther away from campus can still be involved. Third-year medical student MacKenzie Gwinner, who serves as communications director for the council, said the council still holds meetings in person but allows attendees to join virtually if they choose.

“Some people don’t live that close to campus, or they have family obligations in the evening,” Gwinner said. “When you're cutting out that commute to campus, it really just makes it easier for people who are at different stages of life to still be involved in campus.”

As KU Medical Center settles into this new normal, more virtual teaching options will continue to become available. In 2022, the School of Nursing became the first nursing school in the country to enroll in Meta’s Immersive Learning project, which incorporates virtual reality into nursing education.

“COVID gave us this sort of impetus to find a way to pandemic-proof our programs,” Herlihy said. “So that when the next pandemic comes, we already have the tools that, three years ago, were the alternative teaching methods. We've already tried them, and we know the things that work and the things that don't.”

For Kafayat, the pandemic completely changed the way she learns. But that’s not a bad thing by any means, she said.

“Nobody knew that we could do science like this,” Kafayat said. “COVID opened up so many new avenues for doing things. And I’m excited to see where we go next.”