Online Medical Education in the COVID-19 Era: Undergraduate Students' Perspectives

Online education became a norm during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and medical education institutes in India accepted the new normal. It was timely to assess the perceptions and experiences of medical students to find out its relevance and application, if required, in future. Methods: Following permission from the Institutional Ethics Committee, a cross-sectional observational questionnaire-based study was conducted among undergraduate medical students in the fifth semester using a Google form. A validated questionnaire consisting of 21 items was circulated. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 150 students out of 180 (83.3%), who were approached participated in the study. About 46% of the students were of the opinion that online teaching-learning was not as effective as classroom teaching and 25% gave a neutral response. Only half the number of students (50.7%) felt attentive throughout the class and 40.7% attended solely for the purpose of attendance. Around 70% felt that their doubts were clarified while using this method of teaching, but 54% of them felt the amount of interaction was inadequate. Nearly 18% of students found it impossible to prepare for their examinations after learning through online classes. All the students (98.7 %) responded that they lost out on ward postings and clinical training. Although 79.3% of students agreed that online education was a useful option during the pandemic, only 46% of them felt that hybrid mode can be adopted in the post-pandemic era. Conclusion: As per medical students’ perspectives noted in this study, online medical teaching should not completely replace traditional modes of teaching.http://impactfactor.org/PDF/IJTPR/12/IJTPR,Vol12,Issue12,Article7.pd