Remote Learning Barriers and Opportunities for Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Learners in Career and Professional Skill Development: A Case Study

Career and professional development competencies are critical for biomedical PhD and postdoctoral training. In the current educational landscape, programs that meet these competencies are offered and attended in an ad hoc manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying switch to virtual learning, our team observed a surge in interest for our weekly non-sequential programs. In this study, we surveyed our learners to better understand motivators for attending these programs during the pandemic and to identify barriers for participating in such events before and during Work-From-Home. Our data indicate that conflict with research responsibilities, time spent to get to the event location, and planning time to attend are all significant barriers to engagement. Notably, feelings of being overwhelmed, which increased slightly during the pandemic, stood out as an identified barrier. Per our results, the virtual format was an attraction. While 58% of respondents would prefer to access professional development programs virtually in the future, almost 42% indicated a preference for in-person events when normalcy resumes as the physical presence of an instructor and of peers result in a deeper engagement. Our collective analysis here suggests that learners will benefit from a hybrid or combination of synchronous and asynchronous career and professional development programming in the future, even post-pandemic, to reduce identified barriers. Alongside hybrid learning engagements, we strongly recommend structured time for learners to enhance their professional competencies, enabled by a commitment from departments and faculty mentors to enable equity in professional skill building and fostering lifelong growth mindset.