Covid-19 Impact on Radiology Students’ Distance Learning

Distance learning (DL) is a teaching tool that offers education to students remotely in various locations (Ruiz, 2006). The increase in distance learning education is evident in all types of educational programs including those in Radiologic Sciences. DL education programs are expected to comply with all standards just as traditional programs are (Aaron, 2015). With a traditional class setting, knowledge is taught at a given time and day, which is structured in terms of course development and attendance. It does not factor in the domestic and familial responsibilities of the students outside the classroom walls. What happens when a pandemic creates a widespread stoppage of human movement and changes in-classroom teaching to distance learning. How do students adapt? Can they adapt? How do educators teach when the classroom shrinks to the size of a computer monitor? What happens to the clinical, hands-on portion of the education? Many questions arise when a traditional university classroom setting moves abruptly to distance learning. With the distribution of surveys, we hope to analyze how students coped with DL, its evolution and efficiency of course material distribution over the remaining Spring 2020 semester