This drastic change in environment raised questions about differences in the learning experience. Among them: does the body feel less stress in a virtual classroom as opposed to a physical one? The answer could be yes, according to a small study that measured students’ heart rate and salivary cortisol levels, which found that medical students were naturally more relaxed in an online lecture than in an in-person lecture. The study, published in the journal Anatomical Sciences Education in late July, looked at a group of 82 medical students who attended either face-to-face classes or online lectures to measure how their bodies expressed stress. “We know that stress strongly affects learning and memory processes, as well as sustaining attention,” said Morris Gellisch, a research associate at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany and one of the study’s authors, in an August press release. “To date, differences between in-person and online instruction have often been assessed using questionnaires that probed subjective parameters such as motivation or perceived stress. But because learning has a certain physiological component, this raised the question of whether there are differences and in this matter.” The study only looked at medical students and was conducted as they attended either a microscopic anatomy course in person or the same hands-on course virtually, meaning the results may not be applicable to every learning experience or field. The researchers noted that the focus on medical students was key to their study — while some disciplines require more reading and writing, many medical schools rely on developing practical skills. In a microscopic anatomy course, students learn how to study tissue and anatomy at the microscopic level. The researchers observed students in a blended learning course on microscopic anatomy, in which groups taking the course online alternated with groups taking classes in person. Each day a class was held, one group was physically in the classroom, while another group followed online at the same time. Students attending the in-person classes received hands-on experience with a microscope, while online students used a virtual microscopy platform to recreate the experience. For this study, participants completed questionnaires immediately prior to the start of the course regarding their demographic information and self-perceived stress levels. The researchers collected data on the third day of the course. The heart rates of the in-person and online students were recorded throughout the 120-minute class, while saliva samples were taken at the beginning, after 60 minutes and at the end of the class. Those in the online learning group were previously instructed on how to take their own heartbeat and saliva samples. There were 37 students in the online learning group and 35 in the in-person group. The researchers also took control measurements of the participants’ heart rates and saliva samples on a weekend when the participants were not in class. This control data also included 10 additional students beyond those who provided data during the experiment. The researchers found that the online group had significantly less variability in their heart rate levels throughout the class, meaning their heart rates were more stable overall and less likely to suddenly respond to a stressor. Saliva samples were used to examine levels of cortisol – a hormone that is a well-known stress marker, released in the body after a stressful event. The researchers found that those in the face-to-face class had significantly higher concentrations of cortisol in their saliva, compared to those in the online groups. The researchers also took control measurements of the participants’ heart rates and salivary cortisol levels on a weekend when the participants were not in class. Gellisch noted in the release that physiological stress is not always negative—in the context of a learning environment, the body being in a state of temporary stimulation can help with focus. Stress, in a physiological context, refers to how the body deviates from the normal ideal to handle a particular stressor. Another thing the researchers found was that when they compared the questionnaires with the heart rate and saliva data, there was a correlation between increased enjoyment during class and an increased level of physiological stress, but only for the personal class. suggesting that interpersonal learning could be accompanied by greater enjoyment along with greater intensity. Although online learning has been around since the internet became a part of our normal lives, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought online learning to the fore in many countries, with many schools in Canada switching heavily to online learning or in hybrid learning for much of 2020 to 2021. Studies have been mixed on the impact of online learning, with some online students reporting in a Canadian study from 2021 that they felt less important in the classroom than in-person students. This new study measuring physiological stress noted that there was a difference between online learning methods that had been in place for longer and the emergency distance learning that began at the start of the pandemic, pointing out that virtual microscopy existed as a learning tool before the pandemic. Although the researchers found a connection between these levels of physiological stress and online versus in-person learning, the study was not designed to measure the impact this stress had on actual student learning itself. “Therefore, future research approaches should assess physiological data in different learning environments with an emphasis on performance differences that should be investigated as individually as possible,” the study said.
