VARK preference and perception of online versus offline professional development training of medical laboratory technologists

Objective: This study aims to understand the learning preferences and perception of medical laboratory technologists on sudden shift from offline to online training sessions during COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Microsoft form containing twenty-four questions was circulated to the twenty-five laboratory technologists after 1 year of online continuous professional development training. VARK questionnaire was circulated to understand the learning style.

Results: Provision of recording lectures, significant reduction of performance anxiety, anxiety associated with criticism, and QA sessions emerged as the major positive aspects of a virtual training platform. Analysis of learning preferences revealed that most technologists had a unimodal aural (45%) or kinesthetics (33%) than visual (11%) and reading (11%) learning preference. In bimodal learning preference, AK (44.44%) emerged as the predominant form. Forty percent of the technologists showed trimodal learning pattern with 50% among them showing an ARK pattern while 25% each showing VAK and VRK patterns of learning preferences.

Conclusion: Medical laboratory technologists adapted well to the sudden shift from offline to online continuous development programs. However, efficient managerial mechanisms to address the major perceived hurdles and designing a multimodal training module to accommodate the learning preferences of our technologists can ensure enthusiastic participation and effective learning among medical laboratory technologists.