Online Training And Embryology!

The menace of Corona and Covid-19 has taken a toll concerning lives, economy, and the system. After lockdowns, countries are gradually opening the economies in a graded manner with essential services getting the first preferences. One of the most impacted areas of all is education. Schools, colleges, and other educational institutions had to be shut down which affected students considerably. In view of the same, alternative measures to keep things flowing and floating were necessary. And the option of online training rose as an effective rescue.

Online training is not novel and has been used widely before. However, the use of online features has mostly been for corporate meetings, audit reviews, and other applications. As the Corona problem crept inside, online training platforms assumed greater significance. These three months of lockdown have opened avenues to keep the educational system running and importantly, embryology has benefitted immensely.

Clinical embryology has been a subject offered as a full-fledged Masters course in some universities. But that has been a rarity with only a handful of them existing as I can remember nationally or internationally. The majority of the people entering embryology were doing it via obtaining a degree in other biological sciences and then relying on the job training. Nevertheless, one popular form of attaining desired skills in embryology was short term courses for three or five or twenty-one days which gave relevant exposure to the subject. Since Corona came into the picture, the only option now to sustain was to conduct these courses on such online platforms.

Online courses were held on various applications that rendered participation via Zoom or Webinar. Initially, it started with academic events on various embryology related topics where the structure was a lecture, followed by questions from the online audience. In certain applications, enormous people could enroll at the same time and this led to fruitful academic gatherings on the web. Shivani Scientific and EART had the opportunity to conduct few such lectures and the response was terrific. A lot of clinicians and embryologists did make good use of this platform to disseminate knowledge and information regarding embryology. More focus was on topics related to restarting IVF clinics with Corona still looming as a threat and discussions were how to contain and work in a pandemic environment.

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However, embryology lectures on online platforms was a curtain-raiser as more use of it is in offing. The lockdown certainly has eased and relaxed. IVF clinics are gearing to start their services and IVF cycles may resume. But when we speak about imparting education concerning embryology, online platforms are here to stay for some time more. The online system can help in two areas, firstly, it will be for academic events or conferences and secondly, full-fledged training programs.

ESHRE is already about to organize their annual embryology conference online and this will set a precedent at least this year, many fertility societies may opt for online platforms for conferences and that will help continuing academic activities. When it comes to courses, online platforms will be useful as for the near future, prospective embryologists or clinicians may not travel to attend courses. Online platforms will give them the hope to embark on the field. The silver lining of such courses would be a complete or sweeping emphasis on the theory which somewhere takes a backseat in actual classes coz of more interest in honing practical skills. And this again will be the only drawback of an online training program as there is no way of having hands-on experience. Specialized training courses which have a practical significance will be replaced by courses having more theoretical perspectives. With the virus still around, online training may become a temporary norm for the near future.

There was always this deliberation about embryologist being a technician or a scientist in the realm of only practical interests. A candidate was keen on sitting on an ICSI machine to immobilize sperm and inject an oocyte. But he may not be aware or interested to know the science behind the same. The biggest plus point of online training platforms will be to exactly reduce the gap between technical know-how and theory. And this may be a good time to create better awareness of the subject and its theoretical nuances.

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