Open AccessPerception of medical students about online learning in the COVID-19 era
Author(s) -
R. Kalpana,
Robert Dinesh Kumar
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.106
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 0970-2067
DOI - 10.51248/.v41i1.549
Subject(s) - schedule , medical education , the internet , pandemic , perception , globe , covid-19 , likert scale , test (biology) , psychology , academic year , online learning , descriptive statistics , duty , medicine , mathematics education , computer science , multimedia , disease , political science , mathematics , law , pathology , world wide web , biology , operating system , paleontology , developmental psychology , statistics , neuroscience , infectious disease (medical specialty)
and Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a disruption in the academic schedule. As UNESCO observes an 87% interruption in student learning across the globe, it is undeniable that e-learning would have a major role to play in the future and both teachers and learners are getting accustomed to this ‘New Normalcy’. This survey analyses the perception of medical first-year students about online learning in the COVID-19 era.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive questionnaire based study was done and first year medical students were asked to respond. The respondents were asked to answer the questions in Likert-scale, from 1-5. Statistical analysis was done and Test for one proportion was calculated using ‘z’ test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: A total of 122 first year medical students responded to the survey. More than two-thirds of the respondents were females (67%). About 78% of respondents find online learning interesting and enjoyable. More than 80% of students found online education very satisfactory in all aspects. Problems with internet connectivity was the principal challenge faced by the students during online learning. An overwhelming 70% of students felt online teaching to be very beneficial.
Conclusion: The pandemic has posed an unprecedented challenge to the academic schedule. Although many challenges were faced by the teachers and learners, internet connectivity continued to be a major problem in online education. It is the duty of every educationist to ensure an uninterrupted, continuous and an effective process of teaching and learning.