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Shortly before the first lockdown began I was on the cusp of beginning a 5 week surgery clinical placement. I had been so excited to start it! But unfortunately – and understandably – my placement was cancelled the moment it became clear COVID-19 cases were about to surge exponentially in the UK and nothing was going to stop it.

Whilst many medical schools were left a bit in the lurch with the sudden change in circumstances, some awesome people were already setting up free live online lectures to help.

Below I share several excellent providers of free live online lectures for medical students. If there are any I’ve missed please share them in a comment underneath this blog post!

All the below are aimed at UK medical students but if you’re outside the UK, no problem, you are still able to attend. Just be aware that these lectures teach UK guidelines.

Last updated: April 2021
First published: 15th June 2020

 

1. Bite Medicine

Some of Bite Medicine’s lectures are purely academic whilst others are focused on more practical matters, such as excelling at medical school (e.g. how to get published, how to come top of your class).

Lectures run most days of the week.

They sometimes collaborate with SMILE.

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: Yes, uploaded to their website & YouTube

Slides provided: Yes

Mailing list: Yes, for BiteMedicine in general (scroll to the bottom of their website to find the sign up box)

Facebook group: BiteMedicine for Students

Facebook page: BiteMedicine

YouTube: BiteMedicine

Twitter: @BiteMedicine

Instagram: @bitemedicine

Website/webpage: Bitemedicine.com/watch

 

2. Pulsenotes

Pulsenotes’ lectures are super nice to look at. If you like pretty slides PLUS excellent teaching Pulsenotes lectures will be right up your street.

They team up with SMILE weekly.

Teaching platform: Zoom & Facebook live

Recordings: Yes, uploaded to their website (requires membership to view)

Slides provided: Notes are provided on their website

Mailing list: Yes, join here

Facebook group: Pulsenotes Community

Facebook page: Pulsenotes

YouTube: Pulsenotes (recordings from 3 years ago)

Twitter: @pulse_notes

Instagram:  @pulsenotes

Website/webpage: app.pulsenotes.com/live

 

3. The Unofficial Guide to Medicine

You may know that UGTM publish books for medical students, but maybe you don’t know that they are currently running free webinars.

What I really like about UGTM webinars is that they are super engaging thanks to the frequent use of Menti.com to get people to contribute ideas (e.g. differentials, possible investigations) as well as to set single best answer (SBA) questions.=

Teaching platform: Zoom + Menti.com

Recordings: Coming soon

Slides provided: Yes, in the Facebook group

Mailing list: Yes, join here

Facebook group: UGTM Key Clinical Cases Community

Facebook page: The Unofficial Guide to Medicine

Twitter: @UGTMedicine

Instagram: @ugtmedicine

Website/webpage: unofficialguidetomedicine.com

 

4. Quesmed

My favourite thing about Quesmed lectures is the huge number of single best answer (SBA) questions they get through in a single talk. Once you have a good grasp of a topic the best thing to do next is lots of practice questions so Quesmed lectures are an excellent option once you’re at this stage.

Quesmed sometimes team up with Study Hub (see below).

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: Yes, uploaded to YouTube

Slides provided: No

Mailing list: No

Facebook group: Quesmed Tutorials

Facebook page: Quesmed

YouTube: Quesmed Tutorials

Instagram: @quesmed

Website/webpage: www.quesmed.com

 

5. Study Hub

Out of St George’s Medical School. It was started by a 3^rd year medical student wanting to organise some revision lectures for her year over the lockdown. In a short space of time it has rapidly expanded to cover multiple years and is open to students from other medical schools. Teaching is provided mostly by St George’s students and doctors.

Study Hub sometimes team up with Quesmed, Norwich MedEd and others!

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: Yes, on their Notion site

Slides provided: Yes

Mailing list: Yes, join here

Facebook group: Study Hub

Website/webpage: study-hub.org

 

 

6. Norwich MedED

Out of Norwich Medical School’s Medical Education Society. Lectures are open to all medical students. Students as far away as Malaysia and Hong Kong have been signing up!

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: Yes, sent to attendees who fill in feedback forms

Slides provided: Yes, sent to attendees who fill in feedback forms

Mailing list: No

Facebook: NorwichMedED

Twitter: @NorwichMedED

Website/webpage: www.norwichmeded.com

 

7. Learn Medicine

A more recent addition to this list, Learn Medicine offer free teaching also.

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: Yes, see their website

Slides provided: Yes, see the individual event pages for each lecture on their website

Mailing list: Yes, join here

Facebook: LearnMedicine

Instagram: @learnmedicine_

Twitter: @learnmed1

Website/webpage: learnmedicine.org

 

Currently inactive

These lecture series are mothballed for now, but perhaps they will come back to life in future…

SMILE

Definitely the most popular provider of online lectures in 2020. They frequently had 1,000+ students tuning into each lecture!

Lectures ran every day of the week. Sometimes up to 3 lectures a day.

Lectures were not recorded and slides were not provided for copyright reasons but don’t let this put you off. The quality of the lectures was fantastic so it was worth tuning in for the live teaching.

Something unique about SMILE was its very active chat which I personally really enjoyed because you could ask and answer each other questions. There was also a bit of general chat and banter – although organisers tend to encouraged keeping this to a minimum.

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: No

Slides provided: No

Mailing list: Yes, join by emailing them (click here)

Facebook group: SMILE: Sustaining Medical education In a Lockdown Environment

Twitter: @Lockdown_MedEd

Instagram: @smile_lectures

Website/webpage: No

 

 

Funky Anatomy

They ran a few free lectures in early 2021 including some live free ones via Instagram.

Teaching platforms: Zoom, Instagram

Recordings: Yes, some available via YouTube, others only accessible by members via their website

Slides provided: No

Mailing list: Yes

Instagram: FunkyAnatomy

Facebook group: No

Facebook page: TheFunkyProfessor

YouTube: TheFunkyProfessor

 

 

Becoming a Doctor

Lectures ran most days of the week. BAD (what an acronym!) also broadcasted live via YouTube and Facebook.

Teaching platforms: Zoom, YouTube, Facebook live

Recordings: Yes, uploaded to the Learning Hub on their website (requires account) & YouTube

Slides provided: No

Mailing list: Yes, join here

Facebook group: Becoming a Doctor – Current Medical Students

Facebook page: BecomingaDr

YouTube: Health Careers Live

Twitter: @BecomingaDr

Instagram: @becomingadr

Website/webpage: becomingadr.org/tutorials

 

COVID Medical Education

Out of King’s College London. They were one of the first to start providing free live online lectures when lockdown began. They ran weekday evening lectures that usually started around 5.30/6pm.

Teaching platform: Zoom

Recordings: Yes on request

Slides provided: Yes, on their website

Mailing list: Yes, join here (use a .ac.uk email address)

Facebook page: COVID Medical Education

Twitter: @EdCovid

Website/webpage: www.covidmedicaleducation.com

 

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You might also be interested in my article 5 Fantastic iPad Accessories For Medical School.

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