Online learning during COVID-19 pandemic - a cross sectional survey of students’ perception

Background: The corona virus pandemic had an impact on the student’s education especially the medical and dental students. There was no option but to continue the education by using the online platforms to take lectures. This survey aims at finding out the students’ perception towards these online classes.Methods: After ethics committee approval, a pre-validated questionnaire was administered as a Google form to the first, second bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery (MBBS) students and first, second bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) students, data was analyzed using descriptive statistics in Microsoft excel.Results: Out of 400 students who were sent the questionnaire 169 answered, with a response rate of 42.25%. 43 (25.44%) students had responded that the availability of the PowerPoint presentation for future reference makes it better for their study. 59 (34.91%) students said the main problem with the online lectures was Internet connectivity and technical issues /buffering during the class. Mean was 3 and above for three questions regarding the interaction during online classes and missing face to face interaction with both faculty and students.Conclusions: There is a positive attitude towards online learning, but the students miss the face-to-face interaction with the faculty and students. There is a necessity for improving the required infrastructure as well as training the faculty for the use of online platforms for planning and undertaking the sessions in an interactive way keeping in view the future occurrence of similar situations