Perception of Equivalence Between Online and Face-to-face Academic Activities by Undergraduate Medical Students During COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and aim: As online teaching continues to grow in recent years and COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown enforced medical education for online classes in most of the countries, including India, so it is important to investigate medical student's overall Perception about online teaching environments compared to face-to-face (F2F) teaching.
Materials and methods: A study was conducted to evaluate the Perception of undergraduate medical students about online teaching. An observational study initiated during lockdown period in April 2020 in a new medical college running in the second year and only two batches available with a total strength of 330 student's attending classes through online mode from the last five months during COVID-19 Pandemic and 295 students were voluntarily participated in the study depending on exclusion and inclusion criteria. The authors measured the student's Perceptions through a pretested questionnaire by assessing their level of interaction, Small Group Teaching (SGT), understanding concepts, knowledge acquired, and conducive environment for learning online courses compared to face-to-face (F2F) courses by using a 5-point Likert scale.
Results: Students' overall Perception of online classes conducted in terms of interaction, SGT, knowledge acquired, concepts, and conducive environment for learning was negative compared to Face-to-face (F2F) teaching mode.
Conclusion: From a small study, it is very well evidence that students are not able to enjoy online teaching in comparison to face-to-face (F2F) teaching, but online teaching methods can be used as an additional tool instead of replacing it with face-to-face (F2F) classes, particularly in medical education to develop a hybrid curriculum.