A study of perceptions of students and teachers towards e-learning and its effectiveness – a cross-sectional study during COVID-19 lockdown in JNUIMSRC

Abstract

Background: One severely impacted sector during a COVID-19 pandemic is the field of Medical Education. Initially, when the Medical students were sent home based on Government Lockdown orders, it was very hard to imagine that it would change the way of teaching especially in this field. After successfully adjusting to this new scenario the question of the hour is how many students and the teachers did adjust? What were their perceptions? And overall what was the effectiveness of this exercise? This study puts in a sincere effort to find the same. Methods: The student’s and the teacher’s perceptions were taken using Likert’s scale when the online sessions were going on. Another student’s perception was taken about a live lecture class in a classroom. The perception scores of the students were compared. An online test was taken after online sessions which were proctored by teachers and the marks attained by the students reflected the effectiveness of the programme. Results: The perception score of the students was better for live classes than that for the online session. There is no significant difference between the marks scored after the online session when compared to the marks scored when live lectures were being taken. Conclusion: The medical students have been benefitted by this exercise during the pandemic. Further, this mode of teaching should be implemented when regular classes will go on.