E-Learning among Medical students of Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Objective:

The study was done to assess the impact of E-learning methodologies on medical students of Pakistan.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted from 16^th September 2021 to 16^th October 2021. Research questionnaire was constructed on google-forms, and it was electronically distributed amongst the students studying in various medical colleges of Pakistan. 188 students were included in this study. The questionnaire was designed to scale the students’ IT skills, their experience of previous participation in any online courses, comparison of face-to-face learning and e-learning in terms of acquiring knowledge, clinical skills, social competences and possible advantages of e-learning. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze different parameters including advantage and disadvantage of e-Learning and it's acceptability by the students. The Chi-square and Mann-Whitney test were used to compare answers. P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results:

Seventy-two male and 116 female students responded to the questionnaire. Most of the participants found it less effective than in person learning in terms of increasing skills (Mean=3.67, Mean=1.68, respectively) (P<.0001). However, most of them (76.60 %), found it very convenient specially when staying in the safe environment of home was the most important need of the time as in COVID- pandemic. In that hour of the need, an opportunity to learn by e-learning was very promising. Reduced interaction with the teacher was indeed the single disadvantage highlighted by most participants (P= 0.0075). A total of 25 (13.30%) respondents rated e-learning as enjoyable. There was statistically significant difference between answers given by students in the years of studies (P=0.004).

Conclusion:

The use of online teaching platforms has helped in minimizing the disruption in medical teaching caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. Integration of both e-learning and campus-based learning would be beneficial in future medical teaching allowing for more flexibility of learning.