The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to dramatic changes in the means or methods of education. An educational paradigm shift from traditional lectures to an online class has occurred worldwide. Most medical schools also have been fostering alternative education strategies (Bellini et al., 2021). Although the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has improved worldwide, non-face-to-face e-learning systems are still being used. Fortunately, because e-learning content such as MOOC or YouTube clips had been applied to clinical education before the pandemic, medical teachers tried to utilize them instead of adhering to their traditional lectures (Curran et al., 2020; Lunde et al., 2018). Video-based e-learning has been as effective as typical learning in teaching practical clinical skills (Buch et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the clinical education that requires experiments, clinical practices or clinical skills could not be completely replaced by online e-learning, and this is because of its weaknesses that learners cannot directly perform the skills and receive feedback on them.

The author has already implemented online clinical skills education using a smartphone for medical students as an alternative educational method (Bang and Kwon, 2022). The teacher filmed a video of specific clinical skills with the smartphone and broadcast in real time through Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., San Jose, CA, USA). This smartphone-based education has some benefits. There was no need to purchase additional equipment and no difficulty of video filming and broadcasting. Students also responded positively to the questionnaire about the effectiveness on the clinical skills training in this study. However, this education also had some operational difficulties. Because of this, the author tried a new method using a wearable filming device instead of a smartphone and finally decided to apply a head-mounted action camera among various devices (Wintraub et al., 2020). Filming with a head-mounted action camera has the advantage of being able to obtain images in high definition and of point-of-view (POV). Because the learners observed the video of POV, they were able to feel a greater sense of vividness when the teacher was performing skill techniques. This has already been used not only in clinical education but also in various fields, such as interviews (Bräutigam et al., 2021; Lee et al., 2017; Maamari et al., 2015; Matsumoto et al., 2013; Muensterer et al., 2014; Ortensi et al., 2017; Skinner and Gormley, 2016).

There have been studies on POV filming using an action camera so far, but few studies have explored the educational effectiveness of the clinical skills and medical interview education for medical students. The purpose of this study is to analyze medical students’ satisfaction and educational effectiveness after real-time online skills clinical education using a wearable action camera.

The current COVID-19 situation has improved gradually compared to the beginning of its outbreak. The ways of teaching and learning have been switching to the typical face-to-face learning in many educational institutions. However, it will be necessary to prepare alternative educational strategies against the possibility of another outbreak. The continuation of the non-face-to-face situation can easily lead to lack of clinical skills education, which results in deterioration of healthcare providers’ performance skills. Online e-learning maybe a great method for clinical skills training (Jang and Kim, 2014). To overcome the shortcomings of the non-face-to-face clinical skills education, medical educators made efforts through classes using a variety of video clips.

Compared to the class using video clips, the real time online class that provides skill demonstration by a teacher will be more helpful to students. The author has already conducted alternative education using a smartphone. However, smartphone-based education required someone who understood clinical skills well and had to take charge of filming. When the person filming a video did not have a good understanding of the skills, satisfaction with the class and its degree of completion might be considerably lowered. The teacher had difficulty demonstrating the skills because he was already using his one hand for filming with a smartphone. The students also pointed out the defect that it was difficult to observe detailed techniques with smartphone-based video.

The author decided to apply a wearable action camera. If the teacher performs the skills while wearing a camera, there is no hindrance in his performing them and medical interview because both hands are free (Bizzotto et al., 2014). In addition, vivid POV video filming by the teacher can be more helpful in improving the learners’ clinical performance (Thomson et al., 2018). This education program showed high educational satisfaction of the medical students. Online environment was also mostly positive except for some negative comments about the video quality. In educational satisfaction, though the comparative satisfaction with the face-to-face skill class was slightly lower, the rest of the items also showed high relative satisfaction. Students answered that it was also helpful in acquiring the clinical skills in terms of the educational effectiveness.

However, this method also had some limitations. Satisfaction with the method, which is an alternative to the face-to-face skills education, was relatively low. The students pointed out a distinct disadvantage of not being able to practice on their own. There were also some technical difficulties. Smartphones have their own wireless communication devices, and there is, therefore, no need of direct connection to a computer. However, the action camera had to be connected to a computer by cable because it did not have a connecting device. This cable limited the teacher’s movement during his skills demonstration.

In summary, online video education using a wearable camera could be a good modality that can replace a face-to-face class when it is impossible to open the class. Although online education cannot completely replace face-to-face education because students cannot perform the skills directly, it can be expected that it plays a significant role in education in a situation where the face-to-face education is impossible, pretraining before practice, and wrap-up in education after practice. A comparative analysis of education where various wearable devices are used will be needed in the future.