Digital teaching and learning: the future of ophthalmology education

Ophthalmology education is critical to improving eye health care globally. However, there is limited ophthalmology teaching within medical curricula, which has been further exasperated by COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, several educational strategies were implemented with modified curricula in ophthalmology as outlined in a recent review. Digital technology was shown to be effective in facilitating teaching; thus while the pandemic and its variants negatively impacted the delivery of ophthalmology education with strict restrictions placed on face-to-face interactions and onsite education, it also provided a force to drive digital transformation for teaching. This chapter highlights two digital teaching programs developed by our group and implemented to act as a countermeasure to the restrictions placed in response to the pandemic. The first digital teaching program was designed for pregraduate and undergraduate students to enhance interest and to increase academic exposure to basic clinical, research, and educational domains in ophthalmology. The second program we developed was a virtual ophthalmology rotation to allow medical students to continue their ophthalmic education remotely in both completely virtual and hybrid learning environments; to conduct and present research projects from home; and to network with faculty and prepare for residency applications via Internet platforms. These innovations will be incorporated in the future beyond the pandemic because they have proven that face-to-face learning is not required for all aspects of the ophthalmology medical student teaching. Optimizing teaching available through evidence-based digital education will lead to graduates who are highly trained in eye examination skills, resulting in improved patient eye care through timely diagnosis, referrals, and treatment.