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Abstract

Background: Ophthalmology education in medical schools worldwide has declined over the past 20 years, despite an aging global population with increasing ocular concerns, highlighting a critical gap in physician training. All physicians must be adequately trained to provide basic ophthalmic care when specialists are unavailable.

Purpose: To describe and evaluate the Virtual Introductory Summer Course in Ophthalmology (VISCO), an open-access live virtual program conducted in 2021 and 2022.

Methods: VISCO was created by Canadian ophthalmology faculty, residents, and medical students. The course utilized a “reverse classroom” format where participants were supplied with a reading guide of high-quality publicly available resources, followed by live didactic lectures for a total of 6 sessions. Attendees were given the option to complete pre- and post-course surveys, which included demographic information and ratings of their confidence in 11 statements on knowledge of core ophthalmology concepts.

Results: In 2021, of 353 participants who completed the pre-course survey, 136 (38.5%) completed the post-course survey. In 2022, 200 of 445 participants (44.9%) completed the post-course survey. Participants from outside of Canada increased from 13.3% in 2021 to 66.7% in 2022. Confidence significantly rose in all 11 statements related to core ophthalmology concepts pre- vs post-course both years. The lowest pre-course scores were in interpretation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and common ocular emergencies. The highest pre-course scores were in orbital and ocular anatomy. In 2021, a vast majority of participants (86%) agreed or strongly agreed that VISCO’s combined self-guided and interactive web format was conducive to learning and 82% agreed or strongly agreed that VISCO increased their confidence in assessing patients with ocular complaints. When asked about VISCO’s strengths, out of 59 comments, participants most often (33%, 20/59) mentioned interactivity of the live sessions.

Conclusions: VISCO demonstrated high satisfaction and subjective increases in confidence among essential ophthalmology topics. Participants from diverse geographic and educational backgrounds attended the course. Key highlights include the use of a reverse classroom format, the importance of interactivity in a virtual format and self-reported deficiencies in image interpretation and ocular emergencies among our participants. This course can serve as an example for further development in ophthalmology teaching amongst medical trainees.

Received Date

14 May 2025

Revised Date

06 Aug 2025

Accepted Date

18 Aug 2025

Additional Files
Appendix A.pdf (1126 kB)
Appendix B.pdf (247 kB)
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