Presented By: Akshata Naik, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Co-Authors: Cody Bailey-Crow, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Brianne Lewis, Central Michigan University College of Medicine

Purpose
Opportunities for student interaction and providing learner feedback are challenging in virtual asynchronous sessions when compared to face-to-face lecture sessions. Educators often pre-record didactic videos for asynchronous lectures but are unsure whether their learners actively engage with the educational content. Our research goal was to reduce didactic lecture time and increase the active participation of our learners in asynchronous sessions using teaching innovation. An interactive "branching scenario" activity is akin to a learner's journey along a path with a series of "fork in the road" points, requiring learners to make real-time decisions at every junction. When learners choose a particular "branch" its outcome is revealed, and they receive feedback. Hence, their learning process is interactive. We created asynchronous branching scenarios that mimic authentic, real-world clinical scenarios with built-in formative feedback for learners to replace part of our didactic lecture.

Methods
We reorganized two pre-recorded first-year medical student lectures, "Glycolysis" and "Acid-base physiology" to identify areas to integrate "branching scenarios" content. We created our branching scenarios using Qualtrics and H5P platforms and compared their utility. We also collected student engagement time with the branching scenarios.

Results
We successfully replaced 30 out of 100 minutes of our didactic lecture time with two "branching scenarios" activities where learners could actively interact with the educational content and receive feedback on their learning. We used low-cost and readily available platforms to create interactive content that can be incorporated into learning management systems. Engagement data showed that >90% of students completed the activity.

Conclusions
"Branching scenarios" reduced didactic lecture time and allowed students to engage with educational content and receive feedback on their learning within asynchronous teaching modalities. As health professions education evolves and embraces hybrid formats, medical educators can design effective teaching modalities while providing appropriate learning feedback using "branching scenarios".