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 nonsequential 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 postpandemic, 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 bring equity in professional skill building and foster a life-long growth mindset.

中文翻译：

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研究生和博士后学习者在职业和专业技能发展方面的远程学习障碍和机会：一个案例研究。

职业和专业发展能力对于生物医学博士学位和博士后培训至关重要。在当前的教育环境中，将以临时方式提供和参加满足这些能力的课程。在COVID-19大流行期间以及随之而来的向虚拟学习的转变期间，我们的团队观察到了我们每周一次的非顺序学习计划的兴趣激增。在这项研究中，我们对学习者进行了调查，以更好地了解在大流行期间参加这些计划的动机，并确定在家工作之前和期间参加此类活动的障碍。我们的数据表明，与研究职责的冲突，到达活动地点所花费的时间以及参加活动的计划时间都是参与活动的重要障碍。值得注意的是，在大流行期间，不知所措的感觉略有增加，作为公认的障碍脱颖而出。根据我们的结果，虚拟格式很吸引人。尽管58％的受访者实际上希望将来会访问专业发展计划，但将近42％的受访者表示，当恢复正常状态时，他们更喜欢面对面的活动，因为教师和同伴的实际参与会导致更深入的参与。我们在这里进行的集体分析表明，学习者将来会受益于同步和异步职业与专业发展计划的混合或组合，甚至在大流行之后，也可以减少已发现的障碍。除了混合学习活动外，我们强烈建议学习者安排有组织的时间来增强他们的专业能力，