Mock Oral Board Examinations via Web‐Based Video Teleconferencing in the Era of COVID‐19

ABSTRACT Background Due to infection control measures necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, many educational didactic components within residency programs have needed to adapt to virtual formats We describe and evaluate the transition of an in-person mock oral board certification examination to an entirely virtual format Methods Oral board cases consisting of 2 single cases and 1 triple case were adapted to a virtual format using a web-based video teleconferencing platform Faculty examiners underwent 20 minute training sessions prior to the examination Both resident examinees and faculty examiners completed post-examination surveys The system usability scale (SUS) was used to assess the usability of the new format by the faculty examiners Results Fifteen resident examinees completed the mock virtual oral board examination with 8 faculty examiners Eight of 8 faculty members completed the post-examination survey The mean SUS score was 90 6 (SD 11 5) out of a maximum of 100 Eleven of 15(73%) resident examinees completed the post-examination survey All respondents agreed or strongly agreed that examiner instructions were easy to understand and that examiners were adept at using the web-based platform Some technical issues were encountered including audio difficulties for some examiners Respondents were split regarding personal preference for virtual or in-person mock oral board formats Conclusions Utilizing video teleconferencing software to provide a virtual, web-based, alternative to in-person mock oral board examination was feasible and the virtual format was shown to have high usability despite minimal training time for experienced faculty examiners