Small groups satisfy: A descriptive analysis of engagement in virtual learning

Background: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, students participated in a virtual Summer Leadership Program (SLP), consisting of small group discussions and large lectures, instead of a more traditional in-person experience. The purpose of this paper was to assess what forms of virtual learning students found most engaging during their summer leadership training. Methods: Students were surveyed prior to and after the SLP. The pre-survey included seven Likert-scale questions and one free response question (Google form survey open from 7/14/20-7/16/20). The post-survey included 24 Likert-scale questions and four open-answer questions (Google form survey open from 7/23/20-7/24/20). Both surveys were administered to all first year students at Uniformed Services University (N=176). There were 158 responses for the pre-SLP survey and 123 responses for the post-SLP survey. Topics focused on expectations, engagement, self-assessment, and areas for improvement. Results: Survey results showed that students were most engaged with small group sessions where they were asked to apply their knowledge and skills. Students felt less engaged in large lectures. Conclusion: In the virtual environment, students are more engaged in small group settings where they are asked to apply their knowledge and skills. This information can be used to plan sessions within the virtual environment to garner increased engagement from students.